Stolen Innocence
by Senkusha
Summary: What happens when Mara targets Skuld while attempting to rid the Earth of the Goddess? During Skuld's crazy adventure in America, she meets somebody special that changes her life forever. Rated MA for later chapters containing violence and sexual scenes.
1. Demons, Goddesses and Booze

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Mara's Lair, Present time.

"Resurrected again!" the blond wavy haired demon exclaimed, popping out of her coffin. "I HATE this!" she continued, "no matter what I try, those pesky Goddesses always find a way to defeat me!" She teleports to the surface and sees a Sake bar across the street, she crosses the street while thinking 'I have to think of a way to beat those Goddesses. Maybe some booze will do the trick.'

She entered the bar and glanced around. To the far wall was a typical bar, various whiskey's lined some shelves, and a very bored bar tender sat on his stood with his balled up fist supporting his chin. The lights were dim and the place was almost completely vacant, except for a table of rough-necks who were sitting drinking their beers and watching the new arrival as she entered.

"Hey Babe! Lookin' for some action?" one of the guys yelled over to her.

Mara glanced over their way and continued advancing towards the bartender. When she reached the bar, she dryly asked, "Gimme the strongest thing you've got."

"Sure thing. I think you'll enjoy this one." He said pulling down a square looking bottle filled with something of a dark color. He reached behind him and grabbed a shot glass of the shelf and started to open the lid.

"I'll just take the bottle if you don't mind." she said whisking it away from the man.

"Hey doll face!" the same guy yelled over to Mara, "We need some company over here!"

Mara turned and glared at the man, gripping the bottle tightly by its neck, she raised it up and said, "Buzz off. I need to do some thinking." She pulled out the closest chair she was near with her foot and slid into the seat, opening the bottle with a quick twist of her wrist and as she threw the cap behind her she taking a nice long swig of the fermented fruity substance.

"Really? That's too bad. Why don't you tell us your problems and we'll share ours, and maybe we can all figure something out together?", he said again

"Dude!" another man whispered loudly, "we can't talk shop with her around. It's bad for business."

"You're probably right, but when was the last contract you had? Hmmm? Two months? Three? It's a dry season, and we can use all the leads we can find, brother." the first guy countered.

"You wouldn't understand." Mara said back.

"Oh, I don't know about that. We—" the first man replied but was cut off by the third guy.

"Hey, I've got an idea. Let's have a drinking game. We'll roll this die here, assigning a number to each of us. Then we'll each take a turn and roll the die. If the die lands on your number, you have to tell us something about you, and if the die lands on a number that's not taken, you have to slam a drink down." He pulled out an odd eight-sided colorful die with number boldly printed on each face. "Besides…It's no fun drinking alone anyway." He concluded.

"Fine. Since you insist on not leaving my alone, I'll join your corny little game." Mara almost shouted as she kicked the chair behind her as she stood up, grabbing the liquor by the neck and paced over to their table where she slammed the bottle on the table and pulled the chair out from under the table, making a loud screeching sound. She sat down and eyed the three guys.

"I'm glad you finally came over here. I'm Terry, to my left here is Andy, and to my right is Jeff.

Terry looked like a big guy. He wasn't fat or anything, just very muscular and he sat tall, his mass consumed the space around his chair. Andy was kind of small compared to Terry. He had long blond hair that was held up in a manly tail. He sat there puffing on a cigarette, with an uneasy look in his eyes. His arms were folded on his chest and he sat back, leaning backwards on the back legs of his chair. Jeff on the other hand, had a short crew cut done to his black hair. He looked tough, his eyes yelled intimidation. His arms had various black and grey tattoos on them. He too was leaning back on his chair, but he had his black boots resting on the table. The treads had particles of stones and dirt stuck inside them.

"I'm Mara." She said, leaving off the First Class Demon part, as she took another swig of her booze.

"Alright, now that the pleasantries have been dealt with, we each roll. If a number comes up that's already taken, you roll again." Terry said rolling the die. It bounced on the table in random directions until it finally stopped on a 5. Andy took his turn next, as he swiped up the die, and loosely threw it back down on the table. It came to a sudden halt in front of Mara with a 2 facing upwards. Mara took her turn, just lifting up the die and dropping it straight down onto the table top, causing it to finally stop on a 7.

"EERRRRRR!" Mara growled staring at the 'lucky' number.

"What's wrong, don't like lucky number seven?" Andy asked dryly.

"You could say I have an ugly reaction to that wretched number." Mara explained away.

Jeff finally took his turn with an underhanded toss of the die, it bounced several times, and just about when it was about to fall off the table, it stopped with a 1 displayed.

"All right, let the games begin." he said taking the die and rolled…

(Several hours and quite a few bottles...)

"Alright…." Terry laughed hysterically, "you're a demon and you….", more laughter, "want to get rid of some goddesses?!", Terry laughed so hard he fell out of his chair from laughing so hard. His brother Jeff picked him up off the floor and dumped him back in his chair.

"Hey, call me crazy but… I think we can help you." Andy suggested discreetly. He had the least amount to drink, and he could smell a fresh contract being written in the air.

"You…can?" Mara confirmed with Andy. Terry was too busy slamming his open palm on the table and Jeff was too busy beating the crap out of Terry.

"Yup." Andy smiled, for three 'goddesses' the going rate is…" he paused and quickly crunched some numbers, "Three hundred and fifty thousand."

"Three hundred and fifty thousand yen?", Mara exclaimed at the high cost.

"No. 350,000 American greenbacks." Andy corrected.

"I don't have that kind of money. What about just one?" Mara countered.

"How much ya got?" Andy returned.

"I can get you… fifty thousand." Mara concluded.

"For that much….yeah, we'll do the kid. Nice and easy target." Andy suggested.

"What if her sisters stop you? What happens then?" Mara hesitantly asked.

"They will be dealt with." he paused. "only if they stop us from completing the contract." Andy said coldly.

"Excellent!" Mara exclaimed.

"Where's this place at?" Andy asked.

Mara filled in Andy about where the temple was, and gave him basic information about the place, along with it's enhanced security features. She also gave him a picture of the target.

Andy studied the photograph of the young black haired girl. He noted her odd blue tattoos on her forehead and cheeks as well as her large brown eyes.

"We'll have the job done in a couple of days. Give us the money now and consider it done." Andy said as he held out his hand.

"I don't have it with me. Give me a few days, and I'll give you half, and the other half when she's taken care of." Mara replied.

"Alright. I'll see you in a couple of days then. Meet us right here. We're usually here all day." he said standing up and grabbing Terry and Jeff by the neck. "Hey, come on you ding dongs. We've got work to do."

The three men left the bar leaving Mara alone at the table. She smiled and rubbed her hands together before teleporting back down to her lair. Once there she grinned evilly saying, "Perfect. In a couple of days those goddesses will be too wrapped up with that brat, making an attack on the others will be a piece of cake!"

She let out a maniacal bit of laughter and the scene faded to black.

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(A couple of days pass and everything appeared as though it was a normal sunny Spring day.)

Mara returned to the bar, to find it nearly packed.

"What the hell?" she said out loud with a confused tone. From behind her Terry popped up and grabbed her wrist saying only, "Over here." Leading the way to the table.

She took a seat and a beer was poured for her by the bartender. She looked up at him with a quizzical eye and then dropped her gaze to the guys in front of her.

"It's happy Thursday. Free beer with the purchase of any menu item over 1000 yen." Jeff explained quickly.

"Did you bring the money?" Andy interrupted, cutting Jeff off.

"Yeah.", Mara stated as she shoved a brown paper bag over to the three men. Andy peered inside. Seeing several wrapped bundles of hundred dollar bills he nodded and closed the bag back up again and placed it on the inside pocket of his leather jacket.

"Okay, consider the job done tomorrow night." Andy said with a stern look on his face. The three men got up from the table and went to the back of the bar, exiting out a back door. Moments later a scratched up gun-metal grey van left the parking lot.

Mara got up from her table and guzzled the beer down. She also went towards the back, and when out of site, she teleported back to her lair.


	2. Goddess Puberty

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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The Temple, Midmorning, Day 2.

Skuld approached the door to Belldandy's room with hesitation. Standing outside the room for a few minutes, pacing back and forth, walking away and coming back. Finally she knocked on her older sister's door and patiently waited for Belldandy to respond.

Belldandy slid open her door and smiled at her younger sister. "Skuld?", she almost asked not expecting to see her anytime soon.

"Um….Big Sis?" Skuld hesitated, her eyes shifted from right to left.

"What is it?" Belldandy asked, taking her into her room and shutting the door.

Skuld sat down on the bed, since Belldandy offered by leading her to the bed.

"I was wondering if …. you could start training me in advanced magic." Skuld finally said.

"Of course I will Skuld. But why so sudden? Is there anything wrong?" Belldandy gave a concerned look while asking.

"Um… I had an….um…. accident? and um….", she was blushing profusely, while staring down at the floor in front of her.

"Oh, that's wonderful Skuld. You shouldn't be worried about that. It's perfectly – ", Belldandy said cheerfully. Just then Urd came barging into the room.

"So it finally happened, huh squirt?" Urd paused as she walked up to Skuld and patted her on the head, then staring right into her brown eyes she said, "So how does it feel to be a real woman?" Urd grinned devilishly.

"Shut up, Urd!" Skuld screamed back into her eldest sisters' face, which made Urd smile only harder.

"Urd…" Belldandy paused and sighed. Sitting down next to Skuld she put her arm around her back, wrapping her fingers around her upper arm. "There's really nothing to be worried about. I remember the first time it happened to me." She giggled softly at the memory, "I think it took me a week to clean up the mess from my outburst."

"Really?" Skuld asked, trying to picture the devastation in Heaven.

"Yeah, my first time turned out to be a real tornado of magic." Belldandy smiled. "Tell me what happened." she asked Skuld.

"I think it would be better if I showed you." she said sheepishly, getting off the bed and leading the way to the garage.

Upon opening the door Urd nearly fell on the ground in a fit of uncontrolled laughter. Inside, everything was covered by a five foot high wall of frozen water. Rain was still pouring down from the rafters, soaking everything that wasn't already frozen in the block of ice.

"Oh, well, that's not too bad." Belldandy said. Skuld grabbed Belldandy's robe and tugged, pulling her around the back of the building, revealing a whirlpool of water that rose several feet into the sky, sucking everything that wasn't nailed down inside of it.

"You did that?" she asked.

"Yeah… I think so.", Skuld answered ashamed.

Belldandy walked over to Urd and brought her to the back so she could see the magical feat that had been accomplished.

"I'm going to need your help to clean this up." Belldandy said, calling Holy Bell. She began singing the most beautiful chants and melody. A moment later Urd joined with her Angel, making a two-toned harmony.

Several minutes went by, and no progress had been made. Belldandy paused singing and said to Skuld, "I think you're going to have to join us. This magic is unusually over powerful."

"But – But…I don't know the words or—" Skuld unconfidently answered.

"It doesn't matter. Just sing what's in your heart. Your heart always knows the right words and melodies." Belldandy explained.

Belldandy resumed singing, outstretching her arms towards the might of the spinning vortex of water. She looked at Skuld who was still just standing there, nervously biting her lower lip. Skuld looked up to see she was being stared at by not only Belldandy, who was smiling at her, but also Urd, who had more of a disgruntled frown on her face as she glared at the youngest Norn.

Skuld lifted her arms towards the vortex and closed her eyes gently. She opened her mouth and sounded her voice, joining the choir of her sisters. A full harmonious set of chords poured from the Goddesses. The vortex began to collapse as the ice in the garage began to quickly melt away and evaporate into nothingness. Ten minutes after she had started singing, the water magic was no longer present. First Urd stopped, then Belldandy, both of whom were staring at the young Skuld as she sung her first song.

"She truly has a sweet song", Urd commented quietly to Belldandy, who simply smiled at Skuld. The two elder sisters continued to watch quietly as Skuld sung her heart out, sweetly and gently, her arms raised into the sky, her long silky black hair being blown dramatically behind her form. Finally, her singing quieted down into a mere whispering. She opened her eyes to see all the damage had been cleared up, along with both Urd and Belldandy staring at her smiling, which prompted them both to begin clapping at her conclusion. Skuld blushed intensely

"Wonderful Skuld! You've unlocked your heart, now nothing is impossible for you to accomplish." Belldandy said cheerfully.

"But… I still need to be taught how to control—" She said but was cutoff in mid-sentence.

"Skuld-darling. We can't teach you any more than what you have learned." Urd said dryly.

"What?!?" Skuld exclaimed.

"You have taken the final step in your magical training. Anytime now, you will meet your Angel for the first time, and she will help you learn the rest." Belldandy said smiling. "Do you want some tea?", she added at the end, throwing Skuld off topic.

"Um…..yeah. I'll help you!", Skuld cheered, running past Belldandy into the kitchen.

"Urd gave a quick scan around the temple. She could have sworn she felt like she was being watched. After not finding anything, she returned inside to continue watching her favorite television show.

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(Meanwhile about half a mile away in the bushes surrounding the temple…)

"I wouldn't have believed seeing that if you'd told me it." Alex commented to Jeff.

"Yeah. Looks like we found the girl. We'll wait until dark and then, after everyone's asleep, we'll make our move." he responded, ignoring Alex's comment.

"Well, I'm going to get some shut eye. It's going to be a long night—Hey, did you get everything at the airport squared away like I asked you to?" He continued as he laid back and stretched out his legs, leaning up against a tree trunk.

"Yeah, everything has been taken care of…including at our destination as well. All we need is our …. 'passenger'." Terry stated as he too laid back against another trunk.

"I'll keep guard duty for the first shift." Jeff said as he continued peering through his binoculars. Sighted within them was a black haired girl standing in front of some rocks and holding her arms outstretched. "I wonder what she's doing?" he pondered aloud to himself quietly.

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(Back in front of the Temple, Skuld is outside in front of a bunch of various sized rocks and boulders…)

"Oh!!! Come ON!" Skuld screamed at her fingertips and then glared at the rock in front of her. "Levitate! I command you! Come On….." Skuld's face was quickly becoming a shade of deep red as her blood pressure increased to near dangerous levels for any normal mortal, but for her, it just made her face really red colored.

Hearing the bantering and the ear-piercing screaming coming from outside, Urd takes a sigh and slams down the remote control as she storms outside glaring at Skuld. She stood there twitching behind Skuld, her eyes looking cross as Skuld continued yelling at the top of her lungs. Urd's expression changed to a slight evil grin as an idea struck her. She outstretched her right arm and the five or so rocks in front of Skuld flew into the air about twenty feet high.

"YEAH!!! I DID IT!", Skuld proclaimed watching the rocks as they started circling slowly in the air around her. Urd meanwhile took a few steps backwards and gave her wrist a quick twist, causing the rocks to move through the air violently in random directions. Two rocks collided with one another, forming many smaller rocks, a few of which came raining down on top of Skuld., and she had to put her arms up over her head as she screamed, closing her eyes.

'…and now's the time to let them drop.' she chuckled to herself. She dropped her arm to her side and the rocks came crashing down all around Skuld's body, who was now cowering on the ground, curled up in a fetal position, her knees tucked to her chin and her back exposed to the sun. As the first rocks came down, she let out another terrifying scream, which was quickly muted by Urd's hardy laughter from steps of the Temple.

Hearing the laughter in back of her, Skuld stood up to face Urd. She glared at her and yelled, "Shut up! Urd!! I could have gotten badly hurt!"

"Oh, no…..you…..wouldn't have…..!", Urd said between laughs. Skuld cocked her head to the left puzzled by Urd's cryptic response. "I was …. controlling ….. the whole…..thing!", Urd clarified.

"You mean that wasn't….me….?" Skuld spoke softly, almost unheard to even herself. She looked down at the ground and then back up at Urd.

"URD! YOU'RE SO MEAN!" Skuld screamed at her while running past her and headed directly to her room. If her door could have been slammed shut, a loud sonic shock wave probably would have been produced by the amount of force she exhorted on the door. She collapsed onto her bed with tears streaming down her face.

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(A couple of hours went by, it was now late afternoon, near dinner time…)

"Urd, have you seen Skuld?" Belldandy asked her older sister.

"No.", she said flatly, her face glued to the television screen.

"I haven't seen or heard from her in several hours…not since this morning. Do you think she went to the junk yard to scavenge for more parts?" Belldandy persisted.

"I honestly have no clue." Urd let out a sigh, still not taking her eyes off the screen.

Belldandy set the teacup she was holding down on the table and walked down the hall towards Skuld's room. She placed her ear up to the door, and heard nothing. Knocking a couple of times, she called, "Skuld?" Are you in there?" and again, she received no response. Slowly she slid open the door. The room was dark, the shades were all pulled down, but Belldandy could see a long lump in the middle of Skuld's bed.

'She probably wore herself out after this morning's episode. She needs her rest.' She thought, and backed out of her room, quietly sliding the door shut.

She walked down the hall and back into the kitchen, getting out two place settings, one for her, and another for Urd. Keiichi was spending the day with his sister, Megumi and said that he wouldn't be home until tomorrow morning.

"Urd? Come have dinner. It's ready." Belldandy called out to Urd, who reluctantly turned off the television and sighed. She came over to the table and noticed there were only two place settings.

"Isn't Skuld going to be eating?" she asked.

"No, she's fast asleep in her room. Today's events must have drained her pretty well." Belldandy responded.

Urd chuckled a bit and replied, "Yeah, she'll need her sleep. If her Angel is going to be anything like she is….. She's going to need all the power she can muster."

Dinner went without incident, and for the first time in a long time, it was unusually quiet. After she was done eating, Urd resumed watching television, and Belldandy stepped into the bathroom for a nice hot bath. Tonight would be the first time in a long time that she had taken her bath without Skuld bathing with her. The water quietly echoed as it splashed along the sides of the tub and Belldandy laid back thinking about the first time she had awaken her inner self.

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A couple more hours pass by. Belldandy has gone to bed already, and Urd has just finished watching the late edition news. With a yawn and a stretch, she clicks off the television and goes to bed as well. A few minutes later the lights go off in the Temple.

"Hey! Wake up." Jeff nudges his two comrades. "It's time."

The three men hop in their van and slowly move towards the temple. At about a quarter mile away, Andy flips on a switch to a generator in the back of the van. He starts reading off the charge percentage.

"15 percent……..23 percent……30 percent…….42 percent…….55 percent…….61 percent…. 74 percent……"

As the generator reaches maximum charge capacity, the humming sound begins to turn into a high pitched whining sound.

"….93 percent………98 percent…….Full Charge!", Andy concludes.

"Hit it.", Jeff says back to Andy. Andy flips open a red glass door with a green button illuminated underneath it. He firmly pushes down on the button and instantaneously a sound pulse erupts from the generator along with a dull light sphere moving at half the speed of sound.

"Okay, EMP has been delivered. Let's go." Andy said as he hopped out the back of the van. The three men put on their night-vision goggles and quietly entered the Temple, tip-toeing through the hallway, each man checked a single room.

"Bingo.", Jeff said, giving a thumbs up as he slid the door to Skuld's room open. Terry went back outside and waited by the front door, meanwhile Jeff and Andy carefully slid back the sheet that Skuld was under. Jeff took out a handkerchief and some Chloroform, pouring a couple of droplets into the center. He looked at Andy, who nodded, both men descended upon Skuld's sleeping form mildly suffocating her with the toxic substance. Surprisingly, she didn't put up any resistance. Andy picked up her left arm and let it drop back down on the bed. She didn't make a movement, and her breathing was slow and steady. Andy grabbed her feet, while Jeff grabbed her hands. The two men quietly carried her down the hallway and out the front door, gently placing her in the back of the van. Terry shut the door to Skuld's room and then to the front of the Temple. He quickly climbed in the driver's seat and slowly left the Temple heading for the local airport.


	3. Flight Plan

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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The Temple, Day 3, Early Morning

The sun had already been in the sky for a couple of hours before Belldandy woke up. Sitting up and stretching she looked out her window to see the cheerful brightness of the sun's rays of warmth. Quickly jumping out of bed, she tidied up, made her bed, and got dressed. She opened her door to the creepiness of silence. Typically she was accustomed to it, since she always seemed to be the first one up anyway, but she wasn't expecting it since it was already late in the morning. She walked over to Skuld's room and put an ear to the door. Hearing nothing she turned around with a slight smile and started to do her daily chores. The first thing on her list was the laundry. Belldandy walked over to the bathroom and gathered up the clothing from the night before. Carefully walking with the small bundle in her arms she approached the washing machine. She opened the lid, dumped the soiled clothes inside and scooped the proper amount of detergent into the machine. Rotating the knob to activate the noisy machine she closed the lid and went into the kitchen where she began preparing everybody's lunch boxes.

Another hour passed by before Urd finally regained consciousness. Stumbling out of her room she headed straight towards the couch. Making a loud thump as she sat down carelessly she scanned for the television remote control.

"Good morning, Urd!" Belldandy said cheerfully as she was chopping up some vegetables for breakfast.

"Huh…oh…right….morning." Urd responded dully. Finally spotting the remote she swiped it up from on the floor under the coffee table, aimed the device at the television and pressed the power button.

Nothing happened.

"Huh? What's wrong with this thing." Urd exclaimed. "Maybe the batteries are dead?" Belldandy answered from the kitchen. Following her younger sister's advice, she got up off the couch with the remote in her hand, as she walked outside into the garage. She opened the top right drawer in the work bench that sat out there and grabbed a couple of double A batteries from the carton. Flipping off the black plastic backing she dug out the old batteries, throwing them into the nearby trashcan and inserted the new batteries in the remote. Closing up the back as she walked back inside, she once again aimed the remote at the television and pressed the power button.

Still nothing happened.

"What the hell!" Urd cursed while glaring at the television. Angered by the fact that she couldn't be lazy today, she walked up to the television and pressed the power button the unit itself.

Nothing happened. The television refused to turn on. Urd stomped her right foot hard onto the floor in a fit of rage. She plopped down on all fours scooting in back of the television cabinet as she followed the power cord to the outlet on the wall. By no surprise, it was still plugged in.

"Oh, this is just wonderful!" Urd said sarcastically gazing up at the ceiling. "What did that brat do to the television now?" she scowled. Urd started for Skuld's room when Belldandy stopped her.

"Urd, you really should let her rest. I'm sure she'll be more than happy to fix the television for you after she wakes up."

"Yeah…. I guess you're right" Urd replied.

"Besides, you remember how much of a grump she is if you wake her up too early." Belldandy whispered so Urd could hear her. Urd responded with a chuckle herself.

"Fine. I'll….. " she paused while she thought of something to do. "… I'll work on some potions in my room for a while. I've been meaning to whip some new things up anyway." Urd commented. Belldandy simply smiled and resumed her focus on the cooking she was doing for breakfast.

About half an hour later, Belldandy knocked on Urd's door. A muffled Urd spoke up from the other side.

"Breakfast is ready." She answered Urd.

The two goddesses met in the kitchen and dug into another delicious breakfast. Belldandy made sure she saved a good sized portion for Skuld for after she wakes up. After the unusually quiet breakfast, Urd returned to her room and resumed working on her potions. Meanwhile, Belldandy went outside and hung the laundry to dry. After she did that she swept the front of the Temple.

It was just past Noon and the sun was blazingly hot as it beat down on the ground. Belldandy went inside to cool off with a nice glass of Lemonade. Still not seeing Skuld up yet, she began to get concerned. She poured her drink and took a couple of sips. Then setting the glass down on the table, she walked over to Skuld's room and gently slid the door open. Her room was still very dark since she had the shades all pulled down. Belldandy walked into her room and approached a window, releasing the shade from its closed position. Turning around with a smile on her face with the intention of waking her little sister, she approached the empty bed.

Her smile quickly turned into an unexpected frown. Skuld's bed wasn't made up, which was very unusual since Skuld is such a neat freak when it comes to her things.

"I wonder where she could be?" She asked nobody in particular. She left her little sister's room and knocked on Urd's door.

"Yes?" Urd responded.

"I'm going to go out and look for Skuld.—" Belldandy started, but was cut off.

"She's not here?" Urd asked.

"No, she's not. But I think I have a pretty good idea where she might be."

"I'll come with you. I could use some fresh air anyway." Urd stated as she stood up and walked over to the door.

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A couple of hours went by and Keiichi pulled up to the Temple with Megumi in the side car of his motorcycle.

"Oh, it's good to be back home." He said with relief, unintentionally hurting Megumi's feelings a bit.

"Hey, what's wrong with my place K?" Megumi asked sarcastically, playing with him.

"Oh… um nothing…it's just that—" Megumi cut him off.

"Don't worry about it. I know why you're happy to be here." She paused with a smile glaring into Keiichi's eyes. "Her name starts with a 'B'!" she giggled and took off for the door with Keiichi in hot pursuit of his younger sister.

Keiichi stopped in his tracks at the front door when he realized that nobody appeared to be there.

"What's wrong K?" she asked.

"Something's not right. It's too quiet. I would have at least expected Bell to greet us when we arrived." Keiichi said frowning.

"Let's have a look around. Maybe their just hiding for you to surprise you with a big party?" Megumi suggested.

"Yeah. I'm sure that's it." Keiichi said disbelieving his sister.

Keiichi and Megumi took about twenty minutes looking over the entire Temple. The first thing that struck Keiichi as odd was the cluttered mess the garage was in. He'd always known Skuld to pick up after herself. Instead, there were engine parts and tools just laying about all over the floor. Megumi joined him outside as she investigated the fuse box in the garage.

"What's wrong?", Keiichi asked.

"None of the digital clocks are working. The television doesn't work either." Megumi said. She stood there staring at the fuse box for a couple of seconds, puzzled when she found all the circuits were still in the "on" position. Closing the door and keeping her palm on the door she looked out towards the front of the driveway where Benpei was keeping his watch. Megumi walked out side, slowly approaching the robot one step at a time. Normally at this range, the robot would acknowledge somebody approaching and switch to "on guard", but instead it just sat there facing forward. Megumi reached the robot and walked around it, facing its front. Still nothing. She peered at the lever switch at the base of its neck.

"It's still on." She said quietly to herself. "Hey K?" Megumi yelled back up to the garage.

"Yeah?" he yelled back.

Megumi jogged up to where Keiichi was before asking him her question. "What do you think could do something like this?"

"I'm not really sure. But I know it's not the power. My drill still works fine." He said holding it up and squeezing the trigger, causing it to make a high pitched whine.

"Let's go back into the house. I think I have a theory." Keiichi said, jogging into the house quickly. Megumi followed him just as quickly.

"Go into every room and try turning on anything thing and everything that's digital…computers, radios, televisions, watches… everything." he said rushing off to his room.

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Five minutes later both siblings meet back in the living room.

"Yup, just as I suspected. Look." Keiichi said pointing out is wrist watch.

"You keep that in your dresser, right?" Megumi asked.

"Yup. It's not working either. In fact, anything that is digital or has a computer chip in it doesn't work."

"You think somebody set off an Electro-Magnetic-Pulse (EMP)?" she questioned.

"Yeah. I don't' think Skuld would be that careless. She would know better." Keiichi stated. "and by the looks of everything, it appears everyone left in a hurry.", he concluded picking up the glass of lemonade which was covered in 'water-sweat'. A nice sized water ring clung to the bottom of the glass and the tabletop.

"Do you think Mara's involved?" Megumi asked.

"I don't know. It might explain some of this." Keiichi said. Right about then, Belldandy came flying out of the bathroom mirror.

Both siblings ran to the bathroom to see Urd piled on top of her younger sister, Belldandy. Keiichi was the first to notice that Skuld wasn't with them.

"Where's Skuld?" he asked.

"We don't know." Belldandy started and Urd continued. "We've been out searching anywhere she might have gone to. She's not in any of her usual hang outs."

Keiichi stood there pondering for a moment. "Do you think she ran away? It's not like her to at least leave a note…unless she intentionally didn't write one."

"I can't think of any reason why she would run away, Keiichi." Belldandy quickly answered. Meanwhile Urd silently gazing at the floor.

"What's wrong, Urd?" Megumi asked.

"Um…I don't' think it's my fault." Urd answered clumsily.

"What's your fault. What did you do this time Urd?" Keiichi asked angrily.

Urd looked between Keiichi, Megumi, and Belldandy. "Um…well you see….the thing is….yesterday I sort of…. messed with Skuld … while she was trying to levitate a rock… and um… I levitated the entire lot of rocks in front of her with out her knowing, so she thought she was the one in control of the rocks…. and I…sort of made them go in uncontrolled directions. When she put her arms down….I …I let them fall all around her."

"Urd….I'm disappointed in you." Belldandy scolded.

"I didn't think anything of it… but now…. I…I think I must have pushed her over the edge."

"She ran away." Megumi concluded softly, in disbelief.

"No." Keiichi said sternly. "That's not like her. She wouldn't do that. She can't stand to be away from you, Belldandy." he reasoned.

"You might be right, but just to be on the safe side, let's start searching for her everywhere we hadn't looked." Belldandy suggested. Urd was still gazing at the floor fuming with shame.

"We'll go look around the University." Keiichi stated for both him and his sister.

"I'll go to heaven and take a look around there. Urd, I want you to stay here in case we need you… or by some chance she comes back home." Belldandy commanded.

"Okay." is all Urd said in response, slowly walking back into the Temple. The others split up and went to their assigned search locations. Ten minutes later Belldandy came back to the Temple in a panic.

"Urd?!" she almost screamed.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Urd yelled back in anticipation.

Skuld hasn't been to Heaven…not since her last check in. If she did go back, she's keeping a really low profile. You need to come with me so we can look in Yggdrasil and see if we can find her. We need your Administration rights." Belldandy explained.

"Bell…. I can't." Urd said with regret.

"Why not?"

"Don't you remember? I'm locked out of Heaven. Only the Almighty One can grant me entrance again." Urd explained.

"Oh no. What do we do?" Belldandy asked worryingly.

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Meanwhile somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, flying at an altitude around 25,000 feet…

The plane bounced around as it hit pockets of air, causing the plane to dive and climb abruptly. Skuld laid in the middle of the floor. Her ankles were bound by several layers of strong rope and her wrists were bound behind her back using another piece of rope. She gently rocked her head from side to side and made a quiet moan as she opened her eyes slowly. At first all she saw was a blur of lights running down the tiny aisle of the plane.

Alex peered over to the girl from his adjacent seat. Seeing that she was waking up, he unfastened his seatbelt and crouched over the girl. Her vision slowly came into focus, seeing the large man for the first time in her life. He glared into her eyes and wore an angered look on his face. The plane hit another air pocket, the jolt forced a scream out of Skuld's mouth. "AHHHHHHH!"

"Hey! Shut up!", Jeff yelled from the co-pilot's seat. He glared at Alex who instantly got the message to slap Skuld up side the head. He punched her so hard that her head went from facing to the left to the right. Her cheek ached with a nice new bruise forming.

"Owww.", she cried softly.

"I said shut up." Alex reminded the girl, giving her 'the eye'.

A million thoughts were racing through her mind. 'Where am I?' … 'Who are these guys?' … 'What do they want with me?' … 'What are they going to do to me?' … Skuld had successfully scared herself, and it showed on her face. Tears began to well up in eyes. She tightly shut her eyes, forcing herself not to cry. She didn't want to antagonize these guys. She opened her eyes again, but now unfortunately, all she could see was the blurred tears that covered her eyes.

"I have to go to the bathroom.", Skuld whimpered softly as she starred at Alex.

Alex starred back at the girl, giving some thought to her request. He knew that she had been sleeping since at least ten last night, and it was now nearly four in the afternoon (Tokyo time).

"Alright." Alex said picking her up by her waist and throwing her over his shoulder. The added pressure of her own weight made for a very uncomfortable sensation on her bladder. He swung open the lavatory door and set the girl down on her own feet. He then took a step inside and shut the door, after which, he lifted the lid of the toilet.

"Okay…Do your business…. and make it quick."

"I can't." Skuld replied.

"Why not?!"

"Because I'm still tied up." she answered.

Alex knelt down in front of Skuld. Feeling around her waist, he maneuvered his hands underneath her pink shirt and pulled down her skirt and panties to her ankles.

"There. Now sit." Alex commanded.

Skuld hesitated for a moment, still in shock as to what this stranger just did to her. He violated her…and he didn't even seem to care!

"Can I have some privacy…. please?" Skuld asked giving him a glare.

"No." Alex sternly answered.

Skuld sighed and sat down on the toilet seat. A few minutes passed with nothing. She blushed heavily.

"Come on…hurry up!" Alex yelled.

"This….is very difficult for me!" Skuld barked back. Alex instinctively slapped Skuld on her cheek.

"Ow!" Skuld cried. The intense pain caused her bladder to finally release and she visibly relaxed giving a sigh of orgasmic relief which seemed to have lasted for a good couple of minutes.

After she was done she scanned the room for some tissue paper.

"Are you finished yet?" Alex monotonously asked.

"Yes. I just need to –" Skuld began

"Good." Alex cut her off as he pulled her upright into a standing position. Quickly kneeling down he grabbed her fallen clothes around her ankles and pulled them back up onto her waist, which caused her underwear to roll up in an uncomfortable bunch underneath her skirt. With a quick spin he tossed her out of the bathroom and she fell down to the floor of the aisle way.

"Ow!" Skuld cried out in pain.

Alex shut the door and stepped over the fallen girl, sitting down in his chosen seat again.

"Hey kid! Shut up!" Jeff yelled from the cockpit.

"Don't call me a kid!" Skuld yelled back. Jeff unbuckled his restraints and marched over to where she was laying on the floor. He grabbed the back of her shirt with one hand and gave her a good punch that landed on her cheek. Skuld collapsed to the floor being knocked out unconscious.

"Stupid girl." Jeff commented as he walked back up to the cockpit. Alex glanced over to the sleeping girl. If one looked closely enough, they could see a slight bit of regret behind his eyes.

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Back at the temple….

Keiichi sighed as he put his hand up to his chin, gently stroking it as he thought. "Okay." He finally said taking command of the situation. "Megumi. You should go down to the police station and file a Missing Person's report. I doubt that they'd do anything so soon, but it will help getting that process started now. Belldandy. I think you should return up to Heaven and see if you can find anybody at all that might know of where Skuld could be. She has friends up there, right?" Keiichi asked.

"Yes. She has a couple.", Belldandy answered.

"Yeah. Only a couple. That kid always was a loner." Urd commented.

"Urd, you're coming with me. We're going to go over the Junk yard again and then the University with a fine tooth comb."

"Oh!" Belldandy blurted out, causing everybody to face her. "Check all the ice cream parlors!" she announced.

"Yeah, that's a great idea. I'll go looking around town after I get done filling the paper work." Megumi volunteered.

"Alright. We have a plan. Let's go find Skuld!" Keiichi said gloriously raising a fist into the air. Soon after, Megumi, Urd, and finally, Belldandy join him raising their arms in the air as well.


	4. A Welcome Rescue

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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The airport, Day 4, 7:20 a.m. EST (8:20 p.m. Tokyo time).

The plane descended down smoothly until its wheels touched the runway with a couple of squeaks. Terry pulled back on the throttle and applied the brakes. Ten minutes of maneuvering later, the plane finally stopped near a nicely equipped conversion van. A man dressed in a black and grey suit stepped out of the van and waited patiently with his hands folded on his chest.

Alex unbuckled his seat belt and picked up Skuld, who was still knocked out. He threw her over his shoulder, her black hair dangled around the back of his calves. Terry and Jeff both exited the plane, walking down the stair ramp and both greeted the man at the van. Alex took his time de-boarding the plane.

"Every thing you ask for is there." the man said in a heavy Russian accent.

"Perfect. And thank you." Terry replied. Meanwhile Jeff opened up the back van doors for Alex, who dumped Skuld in the back, before climbing in himself. Jeff quickly shut the doors and walked to the drivers seat.

"I'll take it from here. See ya in a couple of days, yes?" Jeff commanded.

"Sure thing." The contact answered as he stepped away from the van. Jeff turned the ignition on and put the van in gear. He lit a cigarette as he pulled out of the airport tarmac and onto the windy road towards the expressway.

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Meanwhile….

"I'm leaving for work, sweetie!" Dirk shouted up the stairs by the front door.

"Okay, see ya tonight?" his wife yelled back down from the bathroom. Dirk opened the door, stepped outside into the beautiful spring morning and locked the door behind him. Taking a few steps down to the driveway, he climbed into his silver Toyota Camry and started it up, maneuvered around the driveway until the car made contact with the asphalt.

Today was just like any other day, only the weather was gorgeous, and Dirk seriously contemplated just calling in sick. He didn't of course, knowing that if he did, the four foot stack of paperwork on his desk would only grow by two more feet by the end of the day. He sighed at the thought of working.

The car came to a stop at a red light, Dirk turned on his right blinker and checked both directions, making sure he could turn. To the left there was nothing, and to the right there was nothing. He tapped on the accelerator and the car inched forward. Checking once more, Dirk glanced over his left shoulder only to slam on the brakes, bring the car to a jerked stop. A grey and black van sped through the intersection.

"Stupid idiot drivers!" Dirk chastised the idiot before starting to make his turn again.

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Back in the van…

Andy scooted up towards the front of the van and began chatting through the caged window to Terry. Jeff must have had a knack for hitting every single pot hole in the road. With each bump, Skuld's head bounced up and came crashing back down on the floor board. She opened her eyes at a rather large bump. Resisting the urge to cry out in pain from the massive headache she had, she just took in her new surroundings. She was still tied up with her hands behind her back. Her thighs had to have had a nice bruise starting from her knotted up underwear pressing deeply into her legs. Skuld looked over her head towards the back of the van and then forwards looking at Alex who seemed to not be paying any attention to her. Very slowly she started to squirm only centimeters towards the back of the van, using each bump as a tiny leap towards the doors.

Unfortunately, her luck didn't hold out as Alex shot a glance out of the corner of his eye, realizing that she wasn't in the same position as before. He stood up crouched down a bit and started moving towards Skuld. When she saw him coming for her she panicked and began squirming with all her might towards the back.

"Oh no you don't." Alex said to her as he picked her up by the front of her shirt. The van hit a pot hole and she smashed her forehead into his head, causing him to drop her and fall over backwards. Skuld leapt over towards the doors and turned around, fumbling with her restricted hands in a desperate attempt to find the door handle.

Alex stumbled up holding his head with his hands. "You little bitch." He yelled at her. He took a couple of steps and just before he reached her, she found the handle and pulled it every direction she could think of. Finally the doors swung open and she fell out backwards onto the asphalt, rolling forwards by the momentum until she came to a stop. Her hair was a tangled mess, and partially obstructed her vision. She tried blowing it off of her face, but failed. She tried to roll off the road but she couldn't get enough power out of her chest muscles.

"Hey! Stop the van. Turn around. We gotta get her!" Alex yelled in a panic. Jeff slammed on the breaks making a loud screech and leaving a nice deep black mark on the road. Alex stumbled forwards, crashing into the caged wall in the front of the rear compartment. Jeff maneuvered the van and turned around, slowly creeping up the road.

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Meanwhile…

"I need some rock music. Yeah, that'll calm me down." Dirk stated rhetorically. Taking his eyes off the road he fumbled for his CD case, looking up every couple of seconds. Once he found it, he unzipped it and pulled out a custom burned CD he had made labeled 'Speed' in black permanent marker. Placing the case back down between the seats he put the CD in the stereo and glanced up. He looked up at just the right time.

"What the hell?!" he yelled, slamming on the breaks and giving the wheel a hard jerk to the left.

Skuld saw the silver car heading right for her and couldn't help but scream. She crouched down, lying as flat as she could on the road. The Toyota swerved, and just barley missed the girl as the forward momentum had completely turned his car around the other direction. Dirk looked up from the steering wheel and took in what just happened. Opening the door, he stepped out and approached the black haired girl. The door's open door alarm chimed once every half second in the background.

"Are you okay?" Dirk asked. Then he noticed that she was tied up. Quickly grabbing his pocket knife out of his pocket, he cut the ropes that had restricted her, revealing the red burn marks from the rope rubbing tightly against her skin. He got no response from the girl. Looking around to make sure no body was coming, he gently scooped the girl up into his arms and walked over to the passenger side door of his car. Opening the door with his pinky finger and kicking it open wide with his foot, he set the black haired girl into the seat and yanked on the seat belt, strapping her in the car. Just as he shut the passenger door, the black and grey van made its appearance.

"Help me!" Skuld nearly screamed realizing that somebody was helping her.

"HEY YOU! STOP!" Jeff yelled out the window as he waved a gun in the air.

"Oh crap." Dirk cursed to himself. "What did I get myself into now?" He jumped over the hood of his car, falling on his face onto the ground. Quickly scampering up he dove in to the drivers seat, slammed his door and yanked hard on the seat belt, which of course caused it to activate 'Restrain Mode'.

"Oh forget it!" he yelled, scrambling for the gear shift he threw the car into reverse and floored it, yanking hard to the right, doing a turn-about in the middle of the road. The van goosed its engine and spun its rear tires on the pavement. Once Dirk had cleared his way, he threw the car into Drive, which it didn't like too much and jerked abruptly. Flooring the accelerator he expected to take off, however, his transmission decided to act up, and get stuck in fourth gear.

"Now is not the time…." He commented as he threw the gear into first. Tapping on the gas the car easily made it up to 25, revving near 5,000 RPM he switched to second, making it up to 55 mph. Finally he switched back into Drive and the car took off. The van was hot on his tail. Dirk hit a pot hole and the stereo finally accepted the CD that was idly hanging out of the slot. About five seconds later the theme song to Beverly Hills Cop came blasting through the speakers at three fourths volume.

"What's your name?" Dirk yelled over the music, keeping both hands on the wheel.

"Skuld." She said looking at Dirk and paused before giving a shy smile. "Thank you."

"Nice to meet you Skuld!" he shouted. "I'm Dirk." Just then the shot of a gun being fired went off behind them. Dirk looked into his rearview mirror to see the passenger of the van sticking his upper half of his body out the window with a rifle aimed forward.

"Oh, that's just wonderful." Dirk said sarcastically. He just passed a red and blue shield labeled 275, one mile. "Oh what the hell…it's only rush hour!" Dirk commented out loud. Half a minute later Dirk had to hit the brakes hard so that his car wouldn't go flying off the entrance ramp. There was a long line of cars coming onto the expressway, and a line of cars wanting to get off at this exit.

"Who ever it was that designed this crap needs to be shot!" Dirk commented. Seeing a tiny opening between two cars, he jerked the wheel to the left and almost hit the car in the second lane over. Skuld held on to the upper handle on the door tightly for her life. The van unfortunately made it onto the expressway as well, but was driving on the shoulder, rapidly catching up.

"Screw this crap!" Dirk said as he floored the accelerator and merged accursed three lanes of traffic, getting honked at the whole way over. The van was staying on his tail like flies on fly paper. Dirk jerked the wheel to the right and passed the car in front of him, then cut back over to the left. The van merged into the left hand shoulder and quickly passed the other driver, cutting him off.

Dirk checked his rear view mirror and then glanced at his speedometer. Well, it's official. My car tops out at 113 miles per hour!" he laughed.

"What's funny?" Skuld asked looking up at Dirk with curiosity.

"Oh, it's stupid really. They only make the car go so fast, yet they have the readings on this speedometer here go up to 160! Dirk jerked the wheel again to the right, passing a line of cars, and then swerved into the middle lane, then back over to the left lane. He was gaining some distance from that van as he peered up into the rearview mirror.

His eyes regained focus of the road just as he passed a highway patrolman sitting in a speed trap.

"Oh shit." He sighed. "This isn't going to look good at all." He said as he glanced over to his passenger. She couldn't have been more than 14 or 15. He was at least five years older than her, and to top that off, how would he explain the rope markings on her wrists. The officer flipped on his lights and siren. Right as he pulled out though, the van just nearly missed the cop car.

Seeing an exit ramp coming up, Dirk jerked the wheel and flew down the exit ramp at nearly twice the regular exit speed. The van meanwhile had been pulled over by the cop on the highway. Dirk slowed down and stopped at the red light at the end of the ramp. Turning right so he wouldn't have to wait, he spotted a Wal-Mart just down the road.

"That should be a good place to hide right now." Dirk said as he pulled into the parking lot and parked the car in the middle of the crowded lot. Dirk slumped back into the back of his seat, letting out a sigh of relief. He looked over at his passenger and visually inspected her from head to toe.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"You're not going to rape me are you?" Skuld answered him with a hint of being terrified.

"No! Not at all. Where do you live? I'm sure you're parents must be worried sick about you." Dirk said guessing that she had been with those guys for a while.

"Please don't treat me like a kid." Skuld responded. "Yeah, I miss my Big Sis."

"Alright. Let's get you home." Dirk said optimistically.

"Where am I anyway?" Skuld asked.

"Huh?" Dirk asked confused at the simple question.

"I was asleep for several hours, and woke up on a plane. I'm not sure how much time passed between then and when I woke up in that van." Skuld explained.

"Oh." Dirk acknowledged.

"The last thing I remember was … crying in my bed." Skuld said looking down at her shoes.

"Crying? What happened?"

"Oh… it's nothing. Just my sister being a jerk." Skuld replied cautiously, remembering that nobody's supposed to know she's a Goddess.

"Well to answer your question, you're just outside of Cincinnati." Dirk smiled.

"Where's that?" Skuld asked dumbfounded.

"Ohio?" Dirk asked in return.

Skuld blushed and looked down again. "I don't know where that is either."

"In the United States of America?" Dirk chided on.

"What?!" Skuld freaked out. "That's impossible! I was in Japan yesterday….in my room….crying alone….!"

"Oh wow." Dirk muttered to himself. Quickly restoring his composure, he whipped out his cell phone and flipped it open.

"Maybe you could call you sister and let her know you're okay?" Dirk asked handing her the phone.

"It's no use." Skuld sighed. "I don't remember the phone number."

Hoping to lighten the mood, Dirk changed the subject. "Where did you find that pretty shirt! It's such a pretty shade of pink and it complements your hair wonderfully." If Dirk knew one thing to get a girl to smile, you give her a complement. The more the better.

"Huh?" Skuld looked up at Dirk tilting her head in confusion. "Oh… um…." She couldn't just outright tell him that she has had this outfit since she was a little girl in Heaven. Dodging the question she accepted his complement instead. "Thank you." she said giving the desired smile.

"I don't know too many guys that like the color pink." She said making small talk. Slowly she was becoming more comfortable and began to relax, dropping her shoulders from their uptight position to allow them to relax.

"Eh, what can I say. I always have enjoyed seeing girls in pink." He half chuckled, as he ran his hand through his spiked brown hair. "Hey, it just occurred to me…. Are you hungry?"

Skuld looked up at Dirk with her eyes pleading 'yes I'm starving…but…' Dismissing her thoughts about etiquette she cheerfully answered, "Yeah, I'm starved!"

"Alright. You said you're from Japan, huh? I just happen to know of this 'great' Japanese restaurant. Or…. Would you rather have something American?" Dirk asked.

"Whichever is fine by me." Skuld answered. She knew that she'd rather have some ice cream, but at the same time, she still missed Belldandy and her wonderful cooking.


	5. A Breakfast Date?

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Day 3, Greater Cincinnati Area, 8:05 a.m. EDT (9:05 p.m. Tokyo Time)

Dirk pulled out of the Wal-Mart parking lot and merged into the rush hour traffic. Skuld alternated from watching the passing scenery to Dirk's driving, or more accurately, she was mentally taking notes on how to drive. The stereo was softly playing "Any way you want it" by Journey. About ten minutes later the car pulled up to the Hibachi Master, only for both occupants to discover that the restaurant doesn't open for anther three hours.

"Well, that sucks." Dirk commented as he exhaled a sigh of disappointment. Skuld looked around the area and became fixated on a Dairy Queen over in the next building plaza. Dirk followed her gaze to the DQ.

"What's in there?" Skuld asked pointing out the little eatery.

"Oh, um… they have some burgers and various appetizers. But they're most famous for their ice cream cakes and other cold treats. Dirk answered.

"It looks open." She replied optimistically.

"I guess we could go there, although I don't recall them having much of a breakfast menu." Dirk reluctantly agreed as he maneuvered the connecting parking lots until the car stopped in front of the Dairy Queen.

"Hold on a second, I've gotta call in to my work. I'll only be a second." Dirk said as he pulled out his cell phone and pressed the auto dial for his company. After a couple minutes of listening to the automated greeting, he was finally routed to the receptionist.

"Hi. I just wanted to let everyone know there that I won't be coming in today. I'm not feeling all that good." Dirk lied into the phone. A couple more seconds and he hung up.

"Do you really not feel well?" Skuld naively asked.

"Nah, I'm fine. In fact, I feel better today than I have in a long time." He paused and turned to face her. "… Especially when I see that cute smile of yours." He winked and opened his car door, exiting the vehicle. Skuld sat there in a semi state of shock. To this date, nobody had really "hit" on her, but she liked all the complements and attention she'd been receiving. A moment later, Dirk appeared at her door, and gently opened the door, holding his hand out to help Skuld out of the car. She was still strapped into the car by the seatbelt and was pulled back down to the seat as she tried to leave the car.

"Oh, I'm sorry, let me get that for you." Dirk apologized. He reached over her waist and pushed in the red button to release the belt, which went zooming back to his wound up position. Skuld smiled and took Dirk's hand as she got out of the car. Shutting the door, the pair walked into the restaurant.

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The inside of this particular DQ was different than many of the others Dirk had been inside. It was quite larger than most, and had a quieter eating area around the corner from the ordering stand. To the back, near the emergency exit was a couple of pay phones and the restrooms. The place was practically empty, and the cashier was in the back preparing for the lunch time rush.

"Um… where are the restrooms at?" Skuld nervously asked Dirk, who glanced around the place and spotted them in the back.

"Back there." He said, pointing out the small hallway underneath the large red neon sign labeled "Rest Rooms".

"Oh okay. I'll be right back." She said and started to walk towards the back, but then stopped. Dirk walked up to the counter and was about to hit the little bell on the counter when Skuld came back.

"Could you…" she hesitated nervously. Dirk turned his head towards her, surprised to see her back already. "Could you come with me?... Please?" She had her hands folded on top of one another down by her pelvis.

"O…kay." Dirk said obviously puzzled by the odd behavior. He followed her to the entrance of the ladies room and stopped, turning his back towards the door, he patiently watched the empty lounge and waited. Skuld entered the room and just as the door shut, she came back out and grabbed Dirk by his wrist dragging him inside.

"Hey!…" Dirk started but Skuld cut him off.

"It's okay. Nobody's in here." She hesitated. "I just really don't want to be alone right now." She said as she entered the first stall and locked the door.

"Alright,… I guess that's fine…since nobody's in here." Dirk reluctantly agreed. This was the first time he'd been inside a ladies room, and it was much different than what he was expecting. Foremost, it was clean, and it smelled like Lavender. Gazing down at the floor, following the line of stalls, he noticed that each stall had a tiny little garbage can inside.

While Dirk was observing the room, Skuld was busy fixing her underwear, that was still bunched up in a roll under her skirt. After a few minutes she flushed the toilet and exited the stall. She stopped by the sink and washed her hands and splashed some cold water on her face. Dirk just stood back and watched her reflection in the giant mirror in front of her.

"That's better." Skuld commented patting herself dry. She opened the door and both her and Dirk walked up to the register.

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"Welcome to Dairy Queen. What could I get for you two today?" A man of about 40 asked from behind the counter, obviously a manager. Dirk looked at the menu and ordered, "I'll have a banana split with the works, hold the strawberries, an order of fried mushrooms, and a classic bacon cheeseburger. He turned to Skuld and waited for her to order.

Skuld leaned over in a panic and whispered, "I don't have any money—"

"It's alright, consider it my treat, okay?" Dirk answered with a smile.

"Can I get whatever I want?" she asked in return.

"Sure, whatever you want. I'm expecting that you're probably really hungry, so get what you'd like, okay?." Dirk agreed.

Skuld looked up at the cashier and then back at the menu. "Um… I would like … ", she started blushing, "two banana splits, a large vanilla shake, and um…. Mint Chocolate Chip Blizzard."

Dirk glanced at Skuld while the total was rung up. "That'll be 31 dollars and 43 cents." The manager said to Dirk.

Dirk reached in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, offering a credit card for payment. A minute and a signature later, the manager said "Okie Dokie. Take any seat you'd like and I'll come back with your food in a few minutes."

Skuld followed Dirk to a seat with a nice outside view of the rush hour traffic. Skuld slid into the booth looking outside, and Dirk took the opposite booth. Skuld nervously fidgeted with her hands as she stared at Dirk, who in turn stared back into Skuld's large brown eyes. The two sat in silence for a good half a minute before Dirk finally broke the ice by commenting about her hair.

"Does keeping your hair that long take a lot of maintenance?" Dirk asked.

"Huh?... Oh, um, not really." Skuld answered.

"Really. I would have thought that it would require frequent brushing to keep the knots out."

"Oh, um… I don't really have the problem." Skuld replied.

"I see." Dirk said and paused for a moment. "That's an … um …interesting …. Ttttoo you've got. Does it mean anything special?"

"Tattoo?" Skuld asked in return tilting her head to the left slightly.

"Yeah, the blue…inverted triangle on your forehead." Dirk answered.

"Oh…um…. that's a birthmark." Skuld quickly answered.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a birthmark like that. It's pretty neat looking!", Dirk cheerfully pointed out.

"Oh….. Thank you." Skuld nervously answered. "So you have a job?" she asked rhetorically in return.

"Yeah. I work for a small software company, troubleshooting problems with the software." Dirk elaborated.

"That sounds interesting."

"It can be at times. Unfortunately, most of the time I spend getting yelled at by customers who what this, that, or the other thing fixed yesterday." Dirk said sarcastically.

"That sort of sounds like my sister's job."

"Really? She does work in a support position as well?" Dirk asked eagerly.

"Um… you could say that she … enjoys making their wishes come true.." Skuld darted her eyes towards the front counter.

"Oh, how sweet." Dirk said. "Does she work for a kids cancer organization?"

"Sometimes." Skuld replied.

Dirk glanced at the girl in pink again. He could tell that she was swinging her feet slightly under the table. She had her hands interlocked and placed firmly on the table, and she appeared to be looking outside at the passing traffic.

"Skuld…" Dirk started.

"Yes?" she answered returning her gaze towards him.

"I … I'm sorry if this is …. uncomfortable for you….but … um….why were those men chasing after you? …. Why were you tied up, sitting in the middle of the road?" Dirk asked as gently, but directly as he could.

Skuld took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly as she stared down at the tabletop. "I – ", she resumed her gaze on Dirk, staring at him in his deep blue eyes. "I know they …. kidnapped me…. and one of them said that … he had a contact around here that…. would pay a lot of money to…. sell me to the highest bidder." Skuld reluctantly answered. Although she played the naivety card on purpose this time, she really knew what they were going to do with her. She knew that she'd be sold as a sex slave to whoever would pay the most for her, doing only God-knows-what to her with their sick obsessions.

"I barely escaped from them. It was only luck that you almost ran over me in your car--" She said. The cashier approached with a tray full of food, which prompted both Dirk and Skuld to hush up for a moment until he went away. He gently placed the tray in front of the two and said sarcastically, "Enjoy your date you two.", and then he walked back up to the front boringly awaiting the next customer to come in.

Dirk saw the reaction that Skuld had to seeing all the ice cream on the try. She quickly picked up the vanilla shake and began sipping it rapidly.

"You really like ice cream… huh?" Dirk asked rhetorically.

"Yes. I adore it. There's almost nothing better!" she exclaimed in between long sips.

Dirk took a bite of his burger and dipped one of the mushrooms in a special sauce that had been provided. It was remarkably close to a horse-radish honey-mustard flavor. Dirk reached for another mushroom and glanced up at Skuld, who had already finished the shake, and was holding the palm of her hand against her forehead.

"Brain freeze?", Dirk asked amusingly.

"Yeah. Ow." She answered and then began digging into the first banana split as the pain vanished.

"I don't think I've ever seen anybody eat ice cream so fast." Dirk commented, "What's your favorite flavor?"

Skuld paused eating and looked up at Dirk. She had molten ice cream all around her mouth, running down the front of her chin. "Um…. I really don't know. I like them all!", she said cheerfully and began digging in again.

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Meanwhile….

A grey and black van cruised the highways looking for the little silver Toyota that had stolen their prize away from them. After almost an hour of searching, Andy finally spotted the car in front of a Dairy Queen. Jeff pulled the van into the parking lot, and went around the back of the strip mall. The three men jumped out of the van, and Terry picked up a pipe from a nearby dumpster. The three of them patiently waited for the two victims to exit the restaurant.

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Back inside….

Skuld had finished all of her ice cream and had volunteered to finish the remnants of the banana split that Dirk couldn't finish. Most of their conversation dwelt on family life, and other topics centering around likes and dislikes. At one point the topic of romance was briefly introduced, but quickly died, since Skuld hadn't had any experience in that area yet. Dirk comforted her by grabbing a hold of her hands and gently holding them in his, saying that someday, she'll meet the right person, fall in love, and probably have lots of children. They both laughed at the last part.

Dirk picked up the empty tray, and threw out the garbage, then placing the tray on top of the garbage collector, Both Skuld and Dirk walked outside. Skuld closely followed Dirk's lead.

Jeff came running out from the side of the building along with Terry from the other side. Jeff grabbed Skuld, quickly muting her screams by covering her mouth with his hand. Terry clubbed Dirk over the back of his head, causing him to collapse to the sidewalk. Jeff picked up Skuld and threw her over his shoulder, all the while she was kicking her legs back and forth. He dumped her in the van and climbed in, straddling her with his body, preventing her from escaping. Terry quickly followed with Andy as the two men carried Dirk's limp body to the van. Tossing him in, Terry climbed into the van and clubbed Skuld on the head, forcing her to succumb to unconsciousness as well. Jeff and Andy exited the rear of the van, hopping into the front, and quickly drove off, merging into the traffic of the quickly dying rush hour, almost T-boning another car in their escape. Fortunately, the manager of the DQ saw the whole thing and quickly called 9-1-1.


	6. Goddess Exposed

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Day 4, Some abandoned warehouse, about 5:30 p.m. EDT (6:30 a.m. Tokyo Time)

Dirk woke up being suspended by a chain hanging from the ceiling. He looked around the semi-lit room and saw Skuld lying tied down to a tabled spread out with her arms and legs attached to each corner of the table. She had been awake for a couple of hours and laid there staring at the ceiling.

"Ow… my head…." Dirk moaned as the pain of a sledgehammer vibrated throughout his head.

"You're awake!" Skuld exclaimed as cheerfully as she could under the current circumstances.

"What … happened?" Dirk asked.

"All I remember is, we walked out of the Dairy Queen and … then we were thrown into that van. When I woke up… I was like this." She blushed fiercely, however Dirk couldn't see her predicament due to the bad lighting.

About fifteen minutes later, a large wooden bulkhead door squeaked open. A man dressed in a mostly black flipped on the overhead lights, causing both Dirk and Skuld to squint tightly at the overly bright lights. Dirk was the first to regain his vision. He glanced over to the new visitor. He wore a cowboy look, black leather vest, red and black flannel shirt, blue jeans, and a hearty black cowboy hat, complimented with snake skin boots.

"Naw look whet the cat drug in." he said with a drawn out, kind of lazy voice. He was calm and collected, cool but had a backwoods heavy accent, as if he grew up in the mountains of Kentucky or West Virginia.

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk." He continued holding up his index finger. "You shouldn't have gotten yourself involved." He said staring at Dirk. "This is going to be mighty embarrassing for the young lady here." He said walking up to a doctors' stool that was placed at the end of the table. He sat down and picked up a clipboard with some notes scribbled on it.

"Yes…. You should bring in quite a nice bit of cash, darlin'", he said to the restrained girl.

Beads of sweat formed on Skuld's forehead, anticipating his next moves.

"Naw, if ya don't mind…I'm a needen' to make sure the goods ain't spoiled." He said as he stood up.

"What are you going to do to her…. You sick freak!" Dirk yelled at the cowboy.

"You really should watch your big mouth more closely." He said sternly and retaliated by pushing a button on the side of the wall, causing an electrical current to surge through Dirk's body.

"AhhAHAAhahahaAHAHAHAhahahaah!" Dirk screamed in pain as he shook violently in mid air.

"Naw, this ain't gonna hurt a bit… I certainly hope." He said with a devilish grin. He reached over and started undoing the buttons of her pink shirt. Skuld squirmed violently, but it wasn't any use. The straps were holding her too tightly. He revealed her slender navel and began to tug her skirt down her legs when Skuld started to panic.

"No! Stop it!" she yelled, followed by a quick wad of spit, she shot out of her mouth, hitting the man in the face.

"Why you little….whore." he answered, staring at the restrained girl, while wiping his face off with a handkerchief. Dropping the cloth on the floor, he grabbed her skirt and gave it a quick yank, pulling it all the way down to her ankles, causing the silky covering to tear apart at it passed over her knees.. She squirmed in desperation, trying to kick, anything, but it was no use. She flailed back and fourth as if she was a fish out of the water, flopping around in search of air.

She began to feel dizzy and lightheaded. Quietly whispering to herself she said, "Oh no….not now…..please." She could feel the power welling up inside of her. At any moment she knew she'd have another uncontrolled outburst, and there was nothing she could do about it.

First there was one drop, then two, and three. The mysterious rain fell from the ceiling and began to rain down harder and harder.

"Whut the hell?!" the cowboy shouted as he was about to reveal her bare bottom. Everybody in the room began to get. He looked at the girl, who was blushing intensely, she dodged his stare and looked up at Dirk's hanging body. Within a minute it was pouring down rain. Water was coming down so fast that floor already had a couple of inches accumulated.

"Whut kind of freak show are you?!" he yelled at the girl, and ran out of the room, locking the door behind him. The little bit of water rushed out the door along with him. It didn't matter, soon enough there was already a foot more water covering the cement floor. On top of that the water was increasing in not only depth but temperature as well. Steam began to rise up from the surface of the water, heating up the entire room. Dirk began to perspire with beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"S..Skuld? What's….going …. on?" Dirk nervously asked. He knew this certainly couldn't be possible, how could it rain inside….more importantly, how could it rain hot water?

Skuld glanced up at Dirk with a pleading in her brown eyes to forgive her. She opened her mouth to say something, but… she just couldn't bring herself to tell him.

After five more minutes of this, the water had already reached the top of the table. Skuld began to get covered with hot water, the back of her clothes were now soaked, and her black hair floated in the water behind her head.

As the time passed, the water rose faster and faster. Unfortunately, it had just about completely covered the teenage girl strapped to the table, a table which was also bolted to the floor. The good news is that while the water was rising, so too was Dirk as he became more buoyant with each passing minute. Skuld took her last gasp of air before she was completely submerged. There was nothing more she could do. She couldn't even scream for help, and nobody would hear her desperate cries for help anyway.

Dirk was too busy trying to jump up out of the water. If he could reach the top of the pole he was hanging from, he could get the slack he needed to unbind his hands. Four minutes later he accomplished just that. He jumped up and dove over the bar, falling just short of clearing the bar, he landed hard on his pelvis.

"AHHHHHYAOOWWW! That's smarts!" he winced in pain. He turned towards the side so that he could straddle the bar. After he was securely not going anywhere he very carefully slid the slip knot that was holding him prisoner and gently slid his wrists out of the rope.

By this time, the water had just about reached the bar that Dirk was on. He glanced downwards into the mist that filled the air. He could just barely make out a floating undone pink shirt down towards the bottom. He looked around and saw there was no way out of this room besides the door that was at the bottom, which was completely underwater by now. Dirk dove in to the water, scolding his exposed skin. It had to be at least 130, maybe 140 degrees. Skuld was being cooked alive down there. The deeper he got, the hotter the water felt. It burned his eyes as he swam down. Reaching the table, he exhaled a little bit of air.

Reaching for her arm he fiddled with the strapping that held her down. It was a simple buckle, but was nearly impossible to move the strapping since it was heated, and wet. After another exhaling, Dirk finally managed to get the strap undone, freeing her left arm. He leapt over the table in one fluid motion. Grabbing the other strap, he managed to undo this one much quicker. He walked / swam to her feet, where he was able to undo each ankle, exhaling some more air.

Finally there was only one more belt holding the unconscious girl down. A thick strapping that went across her hips. Dirk had to fight with this strap. It was a double compound buckle, much different from the other straps that held her arms and feet in place. As he had just about run out of air, and feeling that his skin couldn't take any more of the near boiling water, he managed to undo the strap. Skuld's shirt almost floated off of her shoulders, but Dirk was able to wrap it around her torso.

Eyeing the door he swam towards it, while clenching the girl with desperation. He tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Exhaling the last bit of air he had remaining, he began kicking the door with his boots. Since the door was wooden it slowly gave way to the forceful blows it was receiving. Two minutes later, Dirk succeeded in making a hole large enough for both of them to pass, one after another.

He tossed Skuld out through the hole first. The quickly escaping water flushed her out into the middle of the next room. Dirk was next, as he landed next to her, scooting her pale body over a bit further with the momentum of the flowing water.

Dirk weakly got up, taking a deep gasp of cool air. He choked a bit and coughed up some water that had made it into his wind canal. Kneeling down, straddling Skuld's nonmoving body, he turned her onto her back and put his ear to her chest.

There was no heart beat.

"Oh no! Let's see….. put my hands like this….here? No, here. and press down five times.", Dirk recited his C.P.R. lesions he had taken years ago. He put his palms flat on her chest, one onto of the other and pressed down with most of his weight.

"One…..Two……Three….Four……Five…..", he counted. Placing his head to her chest again, still no heart beat.

Moving upwards he took a breath of air, gently pinched her nose closed and opened her mouth by tugging on her chin. Dirk took in a deep breath and lowered his lips to hers, exhaling gently as to not pop her lungs. He listened to her chest again. Still nothing.

Again, he pressed his palms on her chest, a bit faster this time.

"One..Two…Three..Four…Five…!", he almost yelled as he counted. Taking another deep breath, he moved up to her mouth, pinched her nose again, and exhaled into her open mouth. Listening for a heart beat, there was still nothing.

"Come on…Skuld! You can't die on me!...I won't let a friend die on me! Damn it!" he cussed. Resuming his palms to her chest, he counted again, slightly faster than before.

"One, Two, Three, Four, Five!" Taking another deep breath, he blew into her mouth, only this time she choked up some water, and coughed. Quickly Dirk dismounted her and turned her to her side, allowing the water to run out of her lungs. Skuld laid there coughing for a good half minute before she finally stopped. She opened her eyes to see the wet concrete floor she was laying on. She felt a cool draft caress her exposed navel and looked down, blushed and slowly sat up beginning to button her blouse and fixing her skirt, again. She looked up while she did so, and smiled at Dirk.

"Thank you." she said quietly. "This would be the second time you've save my life today." She half giggled.

"Don't mention it.", Dirk returned, "However, I was wondering—" he began to ask, but Skuld put her hand gently up to his mouth.

"Let me show you instead." She suggested quietly with one eye closed and a half smile. She stood up, with Dirk's assistance and looked around. Spotting a bucket that was still filled with water, she walked over to it and stuck her finger inside, testing the water.

"That should be hot enough." She commented to herself "Take my hand." She said offering it to Dirk.

"Okay?" Dirk said puzzled as to what she was planning to do with a bucket of water.

She leapt up into the air, and fell right on top of the bucket. Dirk followed her lead, but instead of landing in the water, a rainbow-ish vortex appeared beneath them. First Skuld vanished, and then Dirk followed.

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Skuld expertly navigated the tunnel of rainbows. She went up, left, down, left, right, up, down….just like a pro playing a three dimensional game of Doom. Colors streaked past the two. To Dirk it seemed almost as if there were an infinite number of passage ways she could go down, but Skuld seemed to know her way, never once, making a wrong turn. The entire journey was also very disorienting to Dirk, not only going every direction known to man, but also at the same time, he….they were spinning clock-wise and then counter-clock wise, seemingly dependant upon the direction Skuld went. After a few seconds, which Dirk would claim felt like hours they came to see a brilliant white light at the end of the tunnel.

First Skuld, followed by Dirk arrived in a hot bath tub, causing the waves of water to spill over the sides of the tub. Skuld hopped out of the tub, and assisted Dirk out of the tub as well.

"What just happened?" Dirk asked "Where are we?" he followed up immediately without waiting for Skuld to answer.

Skuld giggled at Dirk and answered him honestly and openly, without fear guiding her decisions, she smiled and confidently stated, "We just teleported to my home in Japan."

Dirk's jaw dropped. "Teleported??"…."Japan"…. he questioned himself as those two words continued to echo in his mind.

Skuld giggled some more and said cheerfully "It's okay. Everything is fine now." She smiled encouragingly at the puzzled and confused American.


	7. A Divine Reunion

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Day 4, The Temple, 7:15 a.m. (Tokyo Time)

Belldandy was in the next room, in the midst of changing when she heard the splashing coming from the tub. She heard a familiar voice talking to somebody and opened the door, revealing Skuld stepping out of the tub.

"Skuld?" Belldandy asked surprised to see her.

"Big Sis!" Skuld exclaimed. She ran over to her older sister and glomped her. Belldandy in turn swept Skuld off her feet and twirled her around in the air several times. The girls' hair followed their arc, almost making a complete circle of sandy brown and black hair.

After a few revolutions Belldandy set Skuld down and looked upon the new visitor. "Who's your friend?" Belldandy asked while gripping the towel she wore.

"Oh, this is Dirk…an American who saved my life twice! Dirk, this is my older sister, Belldandy." Skuld introduced the two.

"It is very nice to meet you!" Belldandy said as she performed a quick bow.

"Am I … interrupting something?", Dirk nervously asked, staring at Belldandy only dressed in a towel.

"Oh, I was about to take a bath." She smiled. Perhaps this would be better?" She raised her arms and quietly chanted something. For an instant she was encircled with sparkling glitter and her attire changed from a simple towel to a beautiful blue set of robes.

"Oh…my….god…." Dirk stammered out. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"That's easy. I am a Goddess. Goddess First Class, Unlimited License Belldandy at your service." She cheerfully said as she held out a business card towards Dirk.

"Goddess?" Dirk asked confusedly.

"Yes." She turned towards Skuld and asked "Didn't you tell him?"

"Um… … no…not really." Skuld bashfully answered.

"Tell me what?" Dirk asked, and began to sound irritated.

Just then a white haired older woman, a Japanese young man, and a woman with a close resemblance came into the bathroom.

"That little Skuld here is a Goddess?" Urd interjected.

"Stop treating me like a little kid!" Skuld protested.

"It's good to have you back too, Skuld…. –chan." Urd responded.

"Urd!" Skuld whined.

"I must add… an untrained, unskilled, uncontrollable Goddess, that seems to have no purpose to life." Urd droned on sarcastically waving her hand in the air.

"Urd, now that's not very nice." Megumi said.

"Would you quit picking on her. After all, she did come back home." Keiichi added.

"Oh yes. So she finally did come home." Urd stated, emphasizing finally.

"Would you please stop talking about me in the third person as if I wasn't standing right here?!" Skuld yelled.

Urd turned towards the annoying little voice and glared at her, "Care to make me…. little girl?" giving a slight smile at the end.

"Urd! You're…..you're so mean!" Skuld tried to run out of the room, tears welled up in her eyes, but she was stopped by a gentle hand on her shoulder. She turned her head around to see Dirk just looking at her. His eyes were filled with compassion and had a sense of care.

Dirk smiled a little bit at her before saying, "Please don't go, Skuld. I would feel very awkward in here with your family without you in here with me."

Everybody in the room stared at what had just happened. Normally, Skuld would have tried to use one of her Skuld-bombs on Urd, or she would have succeeded in running out of the room, but for the first time that she'd been there in the temple with her eldest sister, she simply did nothing. She only stood there, looking back at Dirk. After a moment, she smiled slightly and said, "Okay. I'll stay."

Urd's jaw dropped. Keiichi had about the same reaction. Megumi elbowed her older brother in the gut and Belldandy just stood there smiling.

"You are most certainly gifted, Dirk." Belldandy stated.

"What do you mean?" Dirk asked the middle sister.

"Up until now, nobody has really been able to connect with Skuld like that-- except her." Urd stated bluntly while pointing at Belldandy.

Keiichi followed Urd almost instantly. "What happened between you two?" he asked.

Both Dirk and Skuld looked at each other in the eyes. Skuld blushed as she thought about the previous day's events. Dirk just stood there unable to move.

"Why don't I make some tea, and we can talk about it. Okay?" Belldandy said smiling offering a calming suggestion. She promptly left the room. Urd stormed out of the room as well. Moments later everyone heard a door slamming in the background as she entered her room. Keiichi and Megumi looked at the two, and Megumi was the first to offer. "Come and get comfortable."

"Stay a while", Keiichi added. Megumi left the room and sat down in the living room in front of the non working television.

Both Dirk and Skuld were still dripping wet from their escape from a few minutes ago. Skuld looked around and grabbed a couple of long towels, offering one to Dirk and taking the other one as she wiped off her face and attempted to dry her hair. Dirk gently took the towel Skuld offered him and scrubbed his hair dry as well, moving on down to his soaked clothes, in a futile attempt to dry them off as well.

Keiichi came back into the room after a few moments, returning with a set of bath clothes consisting of a robe, and a set of blue and white pajamas. "You can wear these for the time being." He said offering them to Dirk.

Skuld glanced at the exchange of clothing and started for her own room. "I'll um…. Be out in a few minutes." She said as she almost ran to her room down the hall. She quietly shut her door and stood with her back against the door, blushing.

"Feel free to come on out when you're ready. We'll all probably be staring at the broken television set." Keiichi chuckled as he shut the door to the bathroom.

"Well, they all certainly seem like nice people." Dirk said quietly to himself as he stripped of the soaking wet clothes and dried off his newly exposed skin by gently patting it. Every few pats, he winced in pain as he hit a particularly sore spot from the burns he had received earlier. "But that Urd woman…..What's her deal?" he continued pondering.

Skuld opened her closet door and scanned among her clothing. "He said he likes a girl in pink." She smiled as she picked out a soft pink summer outfit that accentuated her … womanly features.

A few minutes later she came out of her room. Everybody was sitting in the living room, except for Urd discussing favorite Japanese recipes. All conversation stopped abruptly when Dirk and Keiichi noticed Skuld entering the room. Her heart was beating a million beats per minute as she slowly took each step into the room.

Dirk's jaw dropped for the fifth time that day. He softly said out loud, mainly to himself, "Wow…. You truly are a goddess." forgetting that he was already going steady with someone back home.

Keiichi just stared at her with amusement as he turned from watching Dirk's reaction before saying, "Wow, Skuld. I don't think I've ever seen you wear that."

"Awesome look Skuld! I keep telling you that you are beautiful. You have these poor guys caught in a daze." Megumi cheered.

"You truly are beautiful, Skuld." Belldandy stated with a loving smile. She knew better, she knew what kinds of thoughts were running through her younger sister's mind. She had been there before herself.

"Thank you." Skuld blushed and smiled as she took a seat opposite of Dirk. She adjusted the ruffled skirt, placed her folded hands in her lap, and crossed her legs and let her bare left foot dangle on her knee, slowly bouncing it.

Megumi was the first to break the silence with a question. "So how did you two meet?"

Dirk started off. "Um…well….. you see…. I … I almost hit her with my…car." He said nervously.

"Oyh my!" Belldandy exclaimed in horror.

"Darn.", Urd said sarcastically teasing Skuld, as she stepped out of the living room.

"How?" Keiichi further asked tilting his head a bit with a confused look in his eye.

Skuld softly giggled, and calmly said, "Maybe I should start at the beginning?" she smiled and paused for a moment before continuing.

"The last thing I remember yesterday was crying in my bed from Urd's cruel prank. I woke up on an airplane all tied up. While I was there, I was slapped a few times for making the slightest noise. Luckily one of the guys let me use the rest room….but not quite as privately as I would have liked." She blushed looked down at the wooden floor.

"That dirt bag!" Megumi growled.

"Yeah, it really sucked." Skuld continued.

"Anyway, I was punched out by one of the bigger guys flying the plane. When I woke up again, I was ridding on the floor in the back of a van, still tied up. I managed to just barely escape by opening the back door and falling out onto the street. A few moments later, Dirk was coming down the road, and nearly hit me. But thanks to his expert driving abilities, he managed to dodge me." Skuld complimented giving a quick smile over to Dirk.

"Wow." Keiichi said with awe.

"Dirk carried me off the ground and drove off with me in a fast paced car chase on the expressway?" she asked not knowing if it was the correct term, but continued when Dirk nodded.

"He managed to loose them just before he was pulled over by a police officer. Fortunately for us, those creeps in the van hit the police car and we lost them."

"Thank goodness", Belldandy said relieved.

"After that, Dirk offered to pay for breakfast, which was really kind of him to do, considering he didn't even know me. He even escorted me to the rest room so I could fix myself up."

Dirk blushed and grinned slightly. To which Megumi and Keiichi caught and giggled softly under their breath.

"Such a gentleman." Megumi joked.

"But then things got really bad when we left. We were both knocked out… hit over the head with something hard. I woke up strapped to a table, and saw Dirk dangling from the ceiling." Skuld shuddered remembering the horrible place.

Urd had come out of her room and quietly continued to listened to the tale Skuld was describing, standing between the kitchen and the living room. She had her arms crossed on her chest as she leaned up against the post of the wall.

A few hours later a man entered the room. A truly evil man. He scared me. He began to undress me, threatening what would happen after he was finished …. inspecting me." She gulped and looked back down to the floor. An unpleasant silence filled the room before Skuld continued.

"Then …. I …. I… had another….outburst." she sighed. "Luckily it scared the guy away, but the room filled up with hot water. I don't remember much after that. Only that I woke up on the cold concrete floor with Dirk looking over me, smiling."

Dirk filled in the blanks. "She had drowned. Thanks to the rising water, I was able to escape from my bindings, but she was stuck under the water for several minutes. Heck…I almost drowned myself trying to save her." He paused. "I'm just glad that door gave way and the water pretty much forced us out of the room. After things calmed down, I had to perform C.P.R. on her – which I'll admit, felt pretty weird, but I'm glad it finally worked."

"After I woke up, Dirk was full of questions, and I knew that showing him would be the best answer. So I teleported with him back here." Skuld finally finished ending with a small smile as she glanced over towards Dirk.

"Sounds like you had quite the adventure, Skuld." Urd finally piped up, and granted her a little respect by not referring to her as a little girl or a kid.

"Speaking of teleporting…" Dirk started.

"It's quite simple really. We three, Belldandy, Skuld, and I are Goddesses. We each have the ability to teleport by a different means. Skuld here for instance, can travel to any place she'd like simply by diving into hot water. Belldandy can use mirrors, and I can use televisions." Urd explained.

"Is that all a goddess can do…besides being incredibly gorgeous?" Dirk continued.

"Of goodness no." Belldandy explained. I am a goddess first class, unlimited license. Which means that I have the ability to do just about anything the System Force will allow. Urd is a First Class, Limit license. Her primary duties include administrating Yggdrasil.—"

"And I am a Goddess Second Class Limited License. My job is to debug the Yggdrasil system." Skuld interrupted.

"Why are you here?" Dirk further questioned.

"It's my fault, really. "Keiichi admitted sheepishly. "I accidentally dialed the wrong number and got the Goddess Support Help Line. Belldandy is the one who answered the call, and she granted me any one wish. Not believing her I wished for a goddess like her to stay with me forever. … and it … happened."

"So… You (pointing to Belldandy), can grant wishes, you (pointing to Urd) can do…?" Dirk asked.

"Just about anything I want. Mainly I watch over these two." Urd said pointing a finger at both Belldandy and Skuld.

"Okay, so you do whatever, and Skuld can teleport?" Dirk asked.

Urd laughed, "Yeah, that's about it right now. She claims to be a whiz at mecha and computers, but I have yet to see any of her 'inventions' successfully work all the time."

"Urd…." Skuld growled giving her eldest sister a glare.

"That will change shortly." Belldandy quickly added defusing the hostility . "She's starting to go through….a time of tremendous growth…. you might equate to what you humans go through as Puberty."

"Really? Does that have anything to do with why I always smell Lavender anytime I'm close to her?" Dirk naively asked.

Skuld giggled along with Belldandy and Urd. "No….that's just her." Urd bluntly put it.

"In addition to going through the normal physical changes that a girl goes through, she's also coming into her power. Frequently during this time, she has what we goddesses call 'Outbursts'. Basically it's a surge of uncontrollable power based in her 'Element'." Belldandy explained.

"Once she masters control, she'll be given an Angel to help her." Urd concluded.

"So…. your element is….water?" Dirk guessed looking at Skuld.

"Yup." She smiled in return.

Dirk finally calmed down enough to take a sip of the tea that Belldandy had prepared.

"Wow, this is really great tea!" Dirk exclaimed.

"Thank you. I'm glad you like it." Belldandy replied cheerfully.

Dirk looked up over his tea cup at Skuld who he noticed was staring at him intently. She offered a smile when she saw him look her way.

"God she really is super cute." He mused to himself, taking another sip of the wonderful tea.


	8. Undiscovered Feelings

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Day 4, The Temple, 8:00 am Tokyo time (7:00 pm EDT)

Urd watched the two 'friends' exchange smiles at each other. Suddenly an idea struck her like a bolt of lightning, her eyes lit up to what she had just remembered.

"Belldandy." Urd started and waited until she had her younger sister's full attention.

"Yes Urd?" she replied looking up at Urd who was still standing by the corner post.

"Isn't there a rule that says something like 'If you save the life of a divine being you are granted one free wish.' or something along those lines?"

Belldandy thought a moment, while she did, both Dirk and Skuld looked her way, waiting in anticipation.

"Yes, there is. Chapter 19, section 32, sub-paragraph R. 'If in the event of normal day to day actions a human mortal either rescues or saves the life of a divine being, he or she is granted one wish without consequence within 24 hours of such act.' I think it's called the Selfless Act Law." Belldandy recited just about word for word.

"That's so awesome Dirk!" Skuld cheered.

"You….mean I … get a wish…like Keiichi did?" Dirk reluctantly asked.

"Yes!" Belldandy smiled.

"What would you wish for?" Skuld asked Dirk leaning so much forward in her seat that she almost fell over onto the floor..

"I really don't know. I'll have to give it some thought. Would you please excuse me?" Dirk asked as he got up from his seat and turned to go outside. Once outside, he sat down on the wooden porch staring at the tree line and the early blue sky.

'What would I wish for?' he contemplated silently.

'I could wish for money…..nah, I'd be broke by next year. What about power?' Dirk quickly dismissed that horrible idea. 'Nah…too much responsibility.'

'It shouldn't be something material. All of those things would either break down or get lost.' Dirk sighed. His train of thoughts were constantly interrupted by images of Skuld. Her voice…saving her life…her soft skin….her wonderful aroma, and even her quirky idea for a meal – ice cream of all things!

"Why am I so distracted by her?" He mused as his thoughts focused more on her than the wish we would want.

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Meanwhile, back inside the Temple…

Belldandy went off into the kitchen and started breakfast, leaving everyone else to their own devices. After a few minutes of sitting on the couch by herself, Skuld got up and walked into the kitchen.

"Belldandy?" Skuld asked.

"Yes, Skuld?" Belldandy answered as her normal cheerful self.

"I was thinking about earlier…about how I had no control…and if it weren't for Dirk…I wouldn't be talking to you right now."

Belldandy turned and knelt down in front of Skuld, placing her hands on her shoulders. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"Would it be okay with you… if after breakfast… you could teach me how to control – "

"Skuld, dear. Control is something that only you can learn by yourself." Belldandy smiled up at Skuld. "There is nothing I can teach you that you already don't know. Just remember that your inner power comes from your heart, and it is invoked when you sing out loud for all of nature to hear." She paused and stood back up, still holding Skuld by her shoulders, "But if you would like I can try to coach you." she tilted her head and smiled, closing her eyes.

"Thank you Big Sis. That really means a lot." Skuld replied with a genuine smile. Belldandy hugged her little sister tightly and released her.

"Why don't you go relax for a while. Breakfast won't be ready for a bit anyway." She suggested.

"Okay, I will." Skuld proclaimed and walked outside.

She couldn't help but notice Dirk sitting on the edge of the porch, his legs crossed as a butterfly, and his elbows resting on his knees, with his chin being supported by his interlocked fingers. Taking a couple more steps, she sat down next to him with her bare feet dangling off the edge. She only stared straight ahead, trying not to disturb Dirk.

Dirk knew she was there the moment she sat down. The powerful aroma of Lavender filled the air with its sweet fragrance. Dirk broke his concentration and glanced over to the younger girl. Her black hair followed the gentle breeze as it delicately blew. She was defiantly deep in thought. Dirk desperately wanted to know. He was intrigued by her.

She felt his gaze fall upon her and turned her head to face him. Both of them stared into each other's eyes.

She smiled, and Dirk returned her smile. They were a mere few inches apart, and without realizing it they drew closer towards one another. Without warning, Skuld wrapped her arms around Dirk neck and gently pulled him in close to her.

"Ah!…" is all Dirk could muster being caught by surprise. He felt something inside him glow. It was warm and fuzzy, soft and cuddly, and it had a powerful magnetic effect upon him, as he unconsciously twisted his body to face hers and placed his arms around her waist, just gently supporting her there. This was an altogether different feeling than he had ever experienced. Whatever this feeling was, it was very pleasurable.

Skuld leaned closer towards Dirk and as gently as the air moved around them, she kissed him on the forehead, removing her lips after a few seconds. She leaned back upright softly saying, "Thank you.", and kissed him on the lips. Then without warning, she hopped out their entangled lock and ran towards the garage, hiding behind the wall to where Dirk couldn't see. Her breathing was heavy as she panted with her eyes closed. A million thoughts a second ran through her mind, however, that was all broken by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Ah love is a beautiful thing… isn't it?" Urd suggested calmly and smooth as she floated down and touched the ground in front of Skuld.

Skuld opened her eyes and clenched her fists shut. "I'm not in love…Urd!" she growled.

"Then what was all that about? Why are you out of breath… and scared to be around him?" Urd continued teasing.

I was….. was only paying gratitude for what he did earlier….that's all!" Skuld defended.

"Yeah, I suppose you can just think that." Urd smiled and then got up close to her nose to nose.

"If you're going to toy with him this way…. You might as well have some fun too." Urd paused and devilishly smiled. "You do understand what I'm talking about…. Don't you?"

"Oh Urd! That's …that's so wrong…… and you know it!" Skuld fired back.

"What?…. don't like feeling …. sexy?" Urd harassed her little sister.

"Whatever Urd." Skuld raised her hand and waved it in Urd's direction, turning her head to the side.

"Oh stop denying yourself! You know you've wanted to try it for a while now… and finally you … you can!" Urd suggested. "… and look, I even found this for you on eBay and in your size! It's so adorable, don't you think?" She held out a black leather lingerie outfit, complete with boots and a whip.

"Urd! You know that's not right" Skuld said blushing a bit. "… and even if I wanted to -- which I don't, I wouldn't feel good about using him like that." Skuld argued back.

"Are you sure you don't want it?" Urd whispered in Skuld's ear, shoving the suit into her arms.

Skuld hesitated for a brief moment. "Of course not! I know myself better than anybody else does!" Skuld just about yelled, dropping the lingerie on the ground.

"You only think you know yourself…but believe me…I know what's going on up there." Urd put her index finger in the center of her blue symbol on her forehead.

"Yeah right." Skuld said sarcastically. "You have no clue what I'm thinking about."

"Don't I?" Urd chuckled. "Remember, little girl, I was once a naïve, curious, … and naughty aroused little girl like you are too."

"Take that back!" , Skuld screamed.

"You're so hopeless, Skuld." Urd sighed and stepped outside the garage giving Skuld one last look she said, "Well, you know that they say about when a person can pick out an aroma of another person…" Urd trailed off and began walking away.

"Huh? What? Urd!?" Skuld almost panicked.

Just as Urd stepped outside the garage into visibility, she turned her head back towards her youngest sister and said with a grin, "It's destiny." She walked back towards the temple, giving Dirk a smirk of a smile as she passed him.

Skuld just stood there dumbfounded at the entrance to the garage. Dirk saw her and just stared at her from the distance he was at. Then there was another familiar voice that sounded from behind Dirk.

"Breakfast is ready!" Belldandy announced.

Skuld stared at the black suit of devilish desire. Although she wouldn't outright admit it, she was curious about some things. Kneeling down, she picked up the suit and shoved it into a drawer of her workbench. She left the garage and walked up to the porch and held out her hand offering it to Dirk. With a smile she said, "Come on in. If you like Japanese food, you'll totally be sure to love Big Sis's cooking. She's the best!"

Dirk took her hand and stood up. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I'm fine!" she said confidently with a smile.

"I just heard…. some commotion in the garage. That's all." Dirk explained.

"Oh…" Skuld blushed. "That's nothing. Just Urd being….herself." Skuld said irritatingly. "Annoying." She tacked on the end.

Dirk laughed and let her lead him into the kitchen the whole while holding her hand, which was rather warm but comfortable.

"Dirk you can sit here." Megumi pulled out a chair for him. Skuld took her normal seat, which coincidently happened to be the chair right next to his.

Breakfast was relatively uneventful, for this household. Skuld showed a great interest in seeing that Dirk could handle chopsticks with ease, and Dirk was sure to try everything that Skuld had on her plate for himself. Megumi and Keiichi glanced towards each other and chuckled under their breath. During the meal, Megumi and Keiichi both took turns describing all the strange contraptions that Skuld had built since she'd arrived. Urd was just as thrilled to point out all the flaws and damage they all caused as well.

At the conclusion of breakfast Dirk commented to Skuld while looking at her, "Wow, Skuld, you certainly have an interesting and … adventurous life. I only wish that I could share all those experiences with you… and watch you grow up into the beautiful woman Belldandy claims that you'll be. -- I really hope to stay your friend forever so we could share our lives. I never want to forget you… any of you.

After Dirk had finished explaining how he had felt, Belldandy stood up autonomously and her diamond on her forehead glowed an intense bright blue. Seconds later a small beam erupted from her head and went straight up into the air. Another minute later both Dirk and Skuld were surrounded by brilliant sparkles of light. Keiichi and Megumi were also surrounded by a downward spiral of sparkling flurries. When the light show had faded, Belldandy collapsed to the floor, and Urd noticed that Skuld was holding Dirk's hand.


	9. Forever Young

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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** WARNING WARNING WARNING **

The following chapter has been rated X by the International Heavenly Foundation for Written Works. (Translation: There are heavy adult-related scenes throughout this chapter.) Consider yourself warned. This chapter could very easily be classified as a "Lemon". Please note that the events occurring in this chapter are required for the purposes of the story plot, however, you may skip this chapter, and figure out what happens without too much trouble.

** WARNING WARNING WARNING **

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Keiichi jumped up and tended to Belldandy, picking her up and carrying her to her bedroom. Meanwhile, a younger teenaged version of Dirk clasped his head, grunting.

"Ahhh….my head….. the…pain!...OW it hurts!" Dirk moaned.

Skuld got up out of her chair, stepped behind him, and began massaging his shoulders and upper back. She bent down to his ear and softly asked, "Does that feel better?"

Dirk released his death grip on his head and sat upright. "Yeah. I feel much better now. You really do work miracles, Skuld." Dirk praised. Skuld leaned a bit further down and gave him a small kiss on his cheek.

"Oh, get a room you two!" Urd chastised.

"I… guess I'll…. clean up the table." Megumi sighed as she got up and began making multiple trips from the dinning table to the kitchen.

"Urd….!" Skuld growled glaring at her older sister.

"Hey, why don't you make yourself useful and fix the T.V.?" Urd pointed out.

"Okay, fine." Skuld sighed. She walked over to the T.V. and began disassembling it. Dirk got up and started towards her when Keiichi came back into the room.

"Hey, cus" Would you mind taking a look at my computer. I really need to get this report done –"

"Say no more. I'm on the case." Dirk winked and walked towards Keiichi's room. Once inside, he began disassembling the obsolete computer system.

"Hey Skuld. I'm gonna go run a couple of errands. I'll be back soon." Urd said as she walked outside.

"Okay, I should have this working better than ever by the time you get back." Skuld threw over her shoulder with her head buried inside the guts of the television.

Urd flew off and landed near the strip mall in town. There was an electronics store that always had a T.V. on. When nobody was looking she dove into the set, and reappeared in Heaven, inside her apartment.

"Now…. let's just see what just happened." Urd said as she began tapping keys on her remote access terminal to Yggdrasil.

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Back on Earth…

"Wow, the entire circuit board is fried. I'm going to have to replace the whole thing!" Skuld said as she stood up and walked towards her room. A few minutes of rummaging around in her spare parts drawer she emerged with a hand full of various sized computer chips and a soldering iron.

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Back in Heaven, the terminal screen of Yggdrasil reported the following list of events:

Dirk: Regressed Age – 30

Dirk: Memory Wipe of Past Events – 100

Dirk: Assignment of Family – Fourth Cousin to Keiichi Morrasato, Orphaned.

Dirk: Assignment of Role – Significant Other – Skuld.

Keiichi: Infuse Dirk into Memories – 12 Years, 7 Months, 8 Days, 15 Hours, 9 Minutes, 7 Seconds.

Megumi: Infuse Dirk into Memories – 8 Years, 2 Months, 17 Days, 8 Hours, 31 Minutes, 51 Seconds.

Skuld: Memory Wipe of Past Events – 4 Days, 16 Hours, 45 Minutes, 3 Seconds.

Skuld: Infuse Dirk into Memories – 3 Years, 5 Months, 22 Days, 4 Hours, 16 Minutes, 49 Seconds.

Skuld: Clone Memory Structure, Copy Contents.

Skuld: Assignment of Role – Significant Other – Dirk.

Dirk: Upload Point of View Memory Structure from Skuld.

Wish Results Complete.

"Oh my…. This is certainly most interesting." Urd commented as she grinned at the screen. She reached over and tapped the Print button on her terminal. As soon as the transaction was finished, Urd quickly left back for Earth.

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By this time Belldandy had recovered consciousness again and walked into the living room, just as Urd came through the front door.

"Oh good, you're back." Skuld pointed out. "Check it out!" she raised her arm to introduce the new and improved television set.

"I don't see anything different." Urd pointed out.

"That's because you haven't turned it on yet….idiot." Skuld groaned.

"What did you call me!?" Urd yelled.

"Anyway, now with the adjustments I've made, you'll see the picture with five times as much clarity; the sound will be crystal clear, with perfect pitch…." Skuld said ignoring Urd's challenge.

"Yeah, yeah….so?" Urd said monotonously.

"…and you'll also be able to watch any channel." Skuld said closing one eye.

"Okay, so it could do that before." Urd said boringly.

"No, you don't understand….. You'll be able to watch all the channels. Every single one of them, any time you'd like." Skuld corrected.

Urd's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yup. Now I'm going to go help Dirk." She said stepping out of the room.

"You go girl!" Urd cheered at her little sisters' back.

After she left the room, only Belldandy and Urd remained. Belldandy took a seat near Urd, and looked at her in the eyes.

"What?" Urd defended.

"The wish….. it worked?" Belldandy asked.

"Yeah." Urd said smiling.

"Something feels different about this one though." Belldandy said with a concerned tone.

"That's because it is different." Urd said enthusiastically, holding up the slip of paper.

Belldandy gently took the paper out of Urd's extended fingers and read it. After she was done, she dropped her arm to her side, holding the paper tightly in her grip. She looked up saying, "Oh my."

"Yeah, I've never seen Yggdrasil muck with history before." Urd said.

"This can't be right. We have to fix it." Belldandy almost panicked.

"Bell, you know better than I that there is absolutely nothing that we can do. The System Force has carved its impression into the fabric of time. What has come to pass, is the current, undisputed, honest, history of events for those two." Urd paused for a moment, taking the paper back from Belldandy. "Just let things play out. I'm sure everything will be fine." Urd said with a confident smile.

"Ya wanna take a bath?" Urd threw in at the last moment.

"Okay. That sounds nice." Belldandy said while Urd stood up. Both women strolled to into the bathroom and shut the door.

Skuld walked into Keiichi's room to find Dirk hunched over on the floor poking around inside of the antiquated computer. His room wasn't all that bright, and he only had a small desk lamp aimed in the general direction where he was working.

"You look like you could use a flashlight." Skuld said smiling as she stood right behind Dirk.

"Oh, God, yes." Dirk said in desperation.

"I'll go get you one. I think there's one in the garage." She said, giving Dirk another peck on the cheek. She turned on her heel, causing her black hair to stream behind her following the arc of moment then she walked out in search of the famed flashlight.

Skuld entered the garage and began looking for the flashlight. She always keeps one in here for when she works late at night. As she searched, drawer after drawer turned up nothing.

"GRRR! I really wish those guys would put my stuff back where they found it when they're done with it!" A frustrated Skuld said. She yanked open the last drawer she hadn't looked in yet, revealing the black leather lingerie.

"What's this?" Skuld said holding it up. "It's too small for Big Sis, or Urd to fit into…Maybe Megumi's? No. She has that allergy. Hmmm." she pondered. Taking a quick glance around, not seeing anybody around, she ran towards the temple, with the suit in hand. She silently crept threw the temple, not a person was around, only Dirk cussing at the computer in Keiichi's room. She snuck past the room Dirk was in and quietly opened her door, shutting it behind her just as softly. Skuld stood in front of her mirror, holding the outfit up to her chest. It was just about a perfect match for her frame.

"Oh, what the heck." She said with a curious smile.

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"Where is she with that flashlight?" Dirk yelled at nobody in particular. Letting out a long sigh, he stood up and gave a good long stretch, reaching towards the ceiling. Dirk walked outside and towards the garage.

"Hmmm, not here?" he said surprised, seeing all the drawers pulled open. "Maybe she's in her room?" he thought and walked back towards the temple. Shutting the front door behind him, he slipped of his slippers and proceeded down the hallway towards Skuld's room. He slid her door open and his jaw dropped.

There was Skuld in the middle of the room, staring at herself in a full length mirror. She was wearing the black lingerie outfit she found in the garage. It consisted of spaghetti straps with red heart shaped lace trimming the top and bottom of the chest piece. The chest piece itself was soft black leather and prominently displayed her A cups. The rest of the outfit consisted of another triangular patch of leather, again with the red lace trimming the outside, covering her pelvic area. Two lone straps on each side traveled down the sides of her waist, connecting the top half with the bottom half. To complete the ensemble she wore thigh high suede boots connected in the front and back by soft leather straps, all adjustable of course.

"Oh my…….goddess." Dirk uttered staring at the black haired teenage beauty. Skuld turned to face him with an awkward smile. She bent her left knee, putting most of her weight on her straight right leg with her hands on her hips.

"You like?" she asked tilting her head. Not really giving him time to answer, she strutted towards the door and gently took his hand, pulling him into her room. She reached behind him, and gently shut the door behind him, and indulged herself with a deep passionate kiss as she wrapped her arms around him.

Dirk followed her advance and kissed back, wrapping his own arms around her smooth back. The two stood there kissing for a good while taking turns biting each other's tongue. Both of them moved slowly towards her bed and collapsed down on it, Dirk falling on top of Skuld's smooth body. She felt him bulge on her pelvis and continued to kiss him.

Dirk unlocked his hands from behind her, sat upright and moved his hands up towards her shoulders, gently caressing them, he knocked her right shoulder strap down her upper arm, allowing it to dangle on her warm skin. Skuld released her grip with her arms, allowing them to fall to her sides for a moment before lifting them back up towards his chest. Slowly she unbuttoned each button on his pajama top moving down his body. Once all the buttons were undone, she moved her palms against his smooth bare chest and pushed the shirt off his shoulders, dropping it onto the bed behind him.

Dirk traced down her chest, and back up, purposely tugging on her other shoulder strap. He looked into her eyes with care and softly inquired, "Are you sure?"

Skuld nodded, placing her hands on top of Dirk's with pressure, moving them down her chest, exposing her hardened nipples. Dirk continued the downward tug of her outfit, pulling it down to her waist. Skuld violently rolled over, now on top of Dirk, she laid close to him and gave him another kiss on the mouth. Dirk kissed back, while pulling her leather down further, until it could no longer travel, due to her boots. Dirk twisted to the side, allowing Skuld to rest on the bed with him. He sat up, gently caressing her naked torso. Once down to her bunched up leather, he traced the top of the left boot, until he found the zipper. In one smooth pull, he slowly unzipped the boot down to her ankle, and freed her leg from its suede prison. Tracing back up her newly exposed leg, he gently caressed her navel and began down her other, doing the same thing to her right boot. Unhooking the boots from their strap bindings he placed each boot on to the floor beside the bed.

Skuld smiled up at Dirk and sat up, her legs extended and close together. She gently pushed Dirk down onto the bed next to her and tugged on his pajama pants, removing everything in one quick movement. Laying back down beside him, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed down his neck. Dirk took his left foot and shoved the lingerie off of Skuld's legs, kicking it onto the floor with the rest of the clothing.

He traced the outline of her waist following the bottom of her rib cage to its center and then proceeded downwards, just barely touching her as he passed over her navel. He continued downwards and gazed into her brown eyes. Reaching the bottom of her pelvis he spread her virgin lips apart with two fingers, delicately inserting his middle finger inside, just barely touching her. Skuld moaned quietly as blood rushed to the newly stimulated area. She closed her eyes and navigated an arm down her own body between Dirk and her front side. Reaching his hand she pushed gently, forcing his finger to go further inside. She pulled upwards, pulling it out, and gliding it over to the top of her clitoris.

Dirk turned Skuld onto her back spreading her legs apart. Skuld kept her feet together, placing them on top of Dirk's body. He nibbled down her chest while using a circular motion down below with Skuld's direction. He could feel her heart beating rapidly as he gently licked her nipples with the tip of his tongue. He slid down her body, hanging off the bottom of the bed. Very carefully, he spread her vagina open and touched her clitoris with his tongue. Moving an inch downwards, he inserted his entire tongue inside, his lips touching her pink insides. Skuld moaned as she arched her back for a moment. She grabbed his head and pulled it closer to her. Realizing that she really liked this, Dirk did some quick rapid tongue motions, dancing along the outside of her. She quivered as he continued to stimulate her. She grabbed the back of his head and pulled him close against her, forcing his tongue back inside.

"Ohhhh" she moaned out loud for the first time. She stared up at the ceiling above her bed caught in a daze. After a few moments of sheer utter pleasure, she begged, "Take me."

Dirk backed away from her, breaking her leg lock on his back. He scooted up her body again and kissed her on both cheeks before giving her another passionate kiss on her lips. Skuld took both hands and maneuvered them to her vagina, separating the folds of flesh to reveal her pink insides once more. Only this time instead of a finger, it was met by something truly designed for intercourse. He throbbed as he slid his erect shaft inside of her. She spread her legs far apart to allow him entrance as deep as he could go.

She whispered "Oh god!" as Dirk started slowly pumping in and out, forcing more of her internal lubrication to come oozing out, and drip onto the sheet under her. She grabbed onto Dirk's smooth back tightly wrapping her arms around him. She kissed him in between pants. Beads of sweat formed on Dirk's forehead, and all over Skuld's body.

Twisting violently, Dirk found himself now on the bottom with Skuld sitting on top of his pelvis. She bent down forward, her hair danced along Dirk's chest, tickling a bit. She supported herself with her hands firmly planted on his shoulders as she began lifting up and down, and every once and a while, she'd do some circular movement with her hips. Skuld was beat red, and was panting heavily. Her heart was racing. She tipped her head back, gazing at the ceiling, her hair whipping along the arc, tickled Dirk's upper thighs. She was moaning after each insertion with just a simple "HaayOh", panting quickly.

She threw herself down on to the bed forcing Dirk to roll over on top of her.

"Faster." she commented out of breath. Dirk did as he was commanded and began pumping as fast as he could. Holding onto her tightly, he stared into her eyes. He couldn't stop, not now, not even if he had to…if his life depended on it. There was no way.

Skuld exploded with lubrication as she exhaled with a moan of ecstasy. Dirk kept on going, causing Skuld's body to insist upon tingling, it violently quivered, jerking with each contraction she had. She clamped down harder on him, slightly trying to close her legs. She had a death grip wrapped around his back, her hands balled up in fists as he kept humping.

Finally he came to a grinding halt, slowly continuing as though he had just gotten a flat tire. Skuld felt his warmth shoot inside of her with each subsequent pump. He had slowed down considerably by now, panting heavily with each thrust, until finally he collapsed on top of her and laid there motionless for a few minutes.

Skuld kissed Dirk on the cheek whispering, "Oh my god, that was wonderful." Blushing a bit.

Dirk slowly got up off of her and stumbled around her room in search of something. Skuld got up a moment later, leaving a giant water spot on the bed. She walked over to her dresser and pulled out a towel. After wiping herself off, she handed the towel over to Dirk, and he did the same.

"Would you like to take a bath with me?" Skuld asked as she stood there naked.

"Why not? Okay." He eagerly said. Skuld opened her closet and picked out her pink terry cloth robe. Tying it around her body she waited for Dirk to finish covering himself with a blue towel. She opened the door and walked down the hall way towards the bathroom. Upon reaching the door, she quietly slid the door open, and Dirk closed it behind him.

"This is going to be so cool." Skuld almost squealed. She dropped the robe on to the floor and waited for Dirk before opening the door to the Bathing Spa.


	10. The Bare Naked Truth

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Skuld opened the door and dove into the water creating a fairly loud splash. Dirk followed her into the water but not quite as noisily. As soon as Skuld's head resurfaced a chant began from the rear of the spa:

"Skuld and Dirk

Lying in a tree.

S. C. R. E . W. I. N. G.

First comes Sex.

Next comes Courting.

Then comes Romance,

Engagement,

and Wedding!"

Urd and Megumi cheered and broke up into fits of laughter, both staring at the couple with grins on their faces.

"Huh?" Skuld said, wiping the water from her eyes.

"What's all that about?" Dirk challenged the two older women.

"Oh… come on…. You can't actually stand there and tell me nothing just happened." Urd said plainly.

"I – I don't know what you're talking about." Dirk defended.

"So Dirk…… I heard you scored on Skuld! Wow, that must pretty neat, to actually do something before your cousin makes a move on Belldandy. I really have to have a talk with K." Megumi charmed.

"What?" Dirk said with his jaw dropping in shock.

'How do they know? We were so quiet…' Dirk thought.

"Tell me….little sis. I forget…what's it feel like to have your cherry popped?" Urd snickered.

Skuld stood there blushing.

"Really, Skuld. Sometimes you can be just plain dumb." Urd chastised.

Skuld glared at her eldest sister.

"Or did you forget that the bathroom shares the same wall as your bedroom." Urd continued with a devilish smile.

"Yeah, it certainly sounds like Dirk rocked your world!" Megumi added.

Skuld blinked in disbelief.

"Well at least we all know one thing…." Urd started, everybody's eyes focused on the white haired beauty. "…. There's certainly going to be some excitement around here from now on."

"What's that supposed to mean, Urd." Skuld growled.

"You mean you honestly don't know?" Urd paused for a moment, then she looked over at Dirk. "Once you start…. You're never going to want to stop."

Urd moved over to Skuld and whispered in her ear, "If you need any tips, you can always come to me for … assistance. I know every little trick in the book."

Skuld backed away from Urd bumping into Dirk, causing the two to fall over into the hot water. Urd continued walking, exiting the Spa. She turned her head and glanced at Skuld. "It really is a shame that Belldandy still wasn't in here when you to started getting funky" she exhaled. "But, that's Bell for you. Always so focused on her duties." Urd turned and walked out, shutting the door behind her.

Megumi added, "The next time you want to …. 'do it'… could I suggest turning on the stereo?" she laughed nervously getting up heading for the door as well.

The door slid shut and Skuld just stood there blushing, caught in a daze at the door. Dirk stood up, the water raining down off of him. He gently grabbed her arm. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

"Huh…um….yeah….I guess….so." Skuld chocked out, tears welling up in her eyes. A lone tear ran down her left cheek.

"Hey…..it's going to be okay. Why are you crying?" he inquired.

"Because Urd has another thing to use to pick on me. I'm so sick of her teasing." Skuld said sinking down into the water.

'This isn't how I imagined this would go. We were supposed to be washing each other's backs and giggling about cooties or something.' Dirk mused to himself. He couldn't stand seeing her sad. It broke his heart to see her cry…especially over something that both of them really enjoyed. Dirk picked up a sponge and lathered it up with soap. He walked around to Skuld's back, and began gently rubbing the sponge on her.

"W—what are you doing?" Skuld asked, turning her head.

"I'm doing what people usually do when they take a bath. Bathing you." Dirk replied.

"Don't you even care that they know? Soon the entire Temple's going to know about it—" Skuld yelled.

"Don't worry about it. Everything will turn out just fine. Besides… what are you afraid of…if everybody knows that we're serious? It's only the next logical step. I mean, after all, we've been together for what….three years now?", Dirk said optimistically then continued. "I mean, I like you, and you like me, right?" he asked, making circular soap swirls on her upper back.

Skuld looked down at the soap clouds floating on the water. "Yeah, of course I like you—Sometimes I feel that we're in love." Skuld admitted, she paused and looked into Dirk's eyes. "I—I'm afraid of disappointed Big Sis." She said softly.

"I don't understand. Why would she be disappointed with you?" Dirk asked as he maneuvered around to her front and gently pushed her chin up level, looking into her eyes. "You didn't do anything wrong?" Dirk said gently.

"I..really don't know." Skuld answered. "Something just doesn't feel right." She explained.

Dirk put on a smile and said, "You shouldn't worry about that right now. Instead you should worry about this."

"Huh?" Skuld said before being attacked with manipulating fingers, tickling her underarms. "Ahhh!" She screamed and clamped her arms down to her chest. That didn't stop Dirk. He switched from her underarms to the bottom of her neck, right in middle of the top of her chest. Skuld lost her balance giggling and fell over into the water, soap foamed everywhere around her. Dirk pursued her, grabbing a tube of shampoo from the edge of the spa. Skuld looked back once she resurfaced, only to find Dirk practically on top of her. He squirted out a blast of soap and tossed the tube to the side. Using both hands he began to massage her scalp, crossing his legs around her waist so she couldn't get away.

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Meanwhile….

Keiichi looked into his room, to find his computer still disassembled. "Where is he?" He said out loud, disappointed.

"Looking for Dirk?" Megumi asked.

"Yeah. I need this computer working so I can type my report." He answered.

"Last I saw, he was with Skuld." She replied back.

Keiichi started for her room, but Megumi stopped him, by grabbing onto his arm.

"What?" Keiichi looked back at his sister.

"We need to have a …. talk." She said.

"But—" Keiichi contested.

Megumi had her way and drug him into his room, shutting the door behind her.

"What do you want." Keiichi said frustratingly.

"When are you going to make your move on Belldandy?" She was unusually blunt and direct to the point.

"Huh?" Keiichi answered, confused where that came from.

"Keiichi. You've known Belldandy for a pretty good length of time. You even had a wish granted for her to stay with you forever. …and yet you haven't moved an inch towards getting her in bed with you!"

"Megumi!" Keiichi growled.

"You know…she's right." Urd said phasing into the room from the ceiling.

"What do you want Urd?" Keiichi asked, obviously annoyed.

"Let me put it to you this way, Keiichi. You've know Belldandy longer than Skuld has known Dirk, yet, Skuld's already getting some action." Urd stated.

"What?!"

"Yup, she's right. We heard the whole thing. Pretty intense sounding if you ask me." Megumi giggled.

"Are you saying…..that …. Dirk and Skuld……no." Keiichi dismissed in disbelief.

"…made out?" Urd suggested. "Yes they did. I'm so proud of my kid sister!" Urd cheered.

"You know Belldandy won't hang around forever if you don't start moving in on her." Urd added.

"But—" Keiichi defended.

"Maybe you should grab some tips from Dirk." Megumi joked.

"Or you could ask Skuld what turns her on." Urd grinned. "What works for one sister, might just work for the other." She elaborated. "You know….with as close as those to are and everything." Urd finally concluded.

Just then Belldandy walked into his room with a gentle smile on her face. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Has anybody seen Skuld?" she asked.

"Yeah. She's taking a bath." Urd answered.

"Oh, okay, wonderful. I'll go tell her." Belldandy said and without a moment to loose she was already opening the door to the spa.

Seeing the two robes on the floor, she scooped them up and placed each one on a hook on the side of the mini hallway. Sliding open the door, she was met with giggles and screaming.

"Ahhh! Stop it! That tickles!!" Skuld screamed in between giggles.

"Oh no you don't. You're not getting away again…not this time." Dirk replied as he dove towards Skuld, causing both of them to submerge under water, creating a giant splash.

"Oh!" Belldandy blurted out. Skuld was the first to surface, wiping her face off, she saw her older sister standing there. Skuld immediately turned beet red. Dirk was next up, quickly wiping his face he turned to attack the vulnerable Skuld, when he realized she wasn't moving, and blushing. He followed her gaze to see Belldandy at the entrance of the bath house.

"Dinner will be ready soon." Belldandy said, turning around and shutting the door behind her.

"I think we should get dressed now." Skuld said solemnly and slowly approached the door.

Dirk quickly followed her out, making loud splashes with his feet as he attempted to keep up with her. Once at the door, she opened it and quickly dried off. Dirk did the same, each grabbing their robe when they were finished. Dirk opened the door first, and Skuld walked out, Dirk following. She entered her room, and was about to shut the door, but Dirk slipped in.

"Shouldn't you go get dressed?" She said sadly.

"Yeah. I will in a moment." He said, spotting the stereo on the shelf behind her. "Do me a favor" he added walking over to her closet.

"What? Hey…what are you doing?!" she yelled.

Ignoring her questions, he rummanged through the various hanging outfits, until he found one that would be appropriate. Lifting it off the rack he held it out as he turned around, offering it to Skuld. "Would you wear this please?"

Skuld looked at the short red dress, taking it from Dirk. "Um…Okay?" She said, not sure what he was up to.

"I'll be right back." Dirk threw over his shoulder as he quickly left her room and ran over to his trunk-closet. Picking out a nice pair of black jeans and blue button up shirt, he quickly threw it on, and then went over to the television, scanning the various CD's hanging on the shelf.

Belldandy noticed him scanning the CD's. Curious she smiled and asked, "What are you going to listen to?"

Dirk glanced over at Belldandy and smiled as he picked out the CD he was looking for. "You'll see."

Megumi popped her head out of Keiichi's room, seeing Dirk all dressed up, nicer than usual. "What's up? Got a date?" she joked.

"You could say that." Dirk said as he half jogged back to Skuld's room.

Skuld had just finished cleaning up her room, while she was waiting for Dirk to return. She turned around swiftly when she heard her door open. Her hair and dress bottom flowed along with the turn. It was just a simple cherry red dress with short sleeves, elastic edging to hold the sleeve close to her skin. The front was a plain V-neck and there was another piece of elastic around the waist, separating the top part from the bottom. The skirt piece was A-shaped, bunched up near the top at the elastic, and loosely folded as the bottom hung at her lower thigh.

"Wow, you cleaned that up fast." Dirk said cheerfully, walking over to her stereo.

"What's that?" She asked.

Dirk didn't answer her as he turned the volume all the way down and selected Track 9. Turning up the volume to about 6 he waited for the song to begin as he stood in front of Skuld, smiling and looking into her brown eyes as he took her hands into his.

The song started playing, an upbeat song. One would instantly recognize it as "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", by Queen. Dirk started to dance, leading Skuld with his movements. He stepped to the left, and then the right. He bounced his waist from right to left along with the beat, lifting Skuld's hands up and down.

"Wha—What are you doing?" She asked, as he manipulated her standing body.

"Dancing, silly." Dirk said smiling.

"But, I don't know how to dance!" Skuld panicked.

"Don't worry about it, just follow my lead, and have fun!" Dirk exclaimed.

She had no choice but to fall into step as he started moving across the room, not letting go of her. At the end of the chorus, he raised her arm high above her head and released her other hand, prompting Skuld to twirl, her skirt expanded with the circular force she created.

The rock and roll filled the hall way of the temple. First Megumi, then Urd, and Keiichi. Last but not least Belldandy came to investigate, all standing at the entrance of Skuld's bedroom door. Belldandy wore a bright smile, seeing Skuld having fun, dancing around the room. It was obvious to her right then, that it wasn't the wish's doing. … he truly loved her younger sister.

Megumi and Keiichi chuckled at the sight, while Urd just grinned, thinking to herself, 'Looks like that potion did the trick….you're welcome…Skuld.' She studied the room, looking for the black lingerie, not finding it, She assumed that it had been put away. 'Now it's your turn, Bell.' She gave an eyeshot over to the middle sister.

At the end of the song, everyone began clapping and cheering, Megumi threw in a couple of whistles. Skuld blushed a bit, but had a genuine smile on, laughing with joy as the others rejoiced at the entertainment. Dirk looked back at Skuld, and gave her kiss on the cheek. Skuld blushed a darker shade of red and pulled him into her arms, giving him a long, tight bear hug.

Belldandy and Urd chuckled seeing Skuld's reaction. Urd looked over at Belldandy and said, "See, I told you everything would be fine. Any day now, with his … love, she's fully open her heart, and that's when the real fun will begin."

"Yes. I think you're right, Urd.", Belldandy answered. "Let's go have some dinner." She continued as the two older sisters walked towards the kitchen, both wearing smiles.


	11. A Night to Remember

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Skuld looked into Dirk's eyes, placing her open hand gently on his cheek. "Thank you, Dirk." She said sweetly and gave him a quick peck on the lips. She took his hand in hers and lead him outside her room towards the living room.

Belldandy sat down in her normal seat at the end of the table closest to the kitchen. Urd took the seat to her right around the corner, with Megumi sitting to her right. Keiichi sat down at the other end of the table, in direct sight of Belldandy. Skuld sat down on the other side of her Big Sis. Dirk hopped in front of her and gently scooted her chair out for her to sit down. Turning her head with a smile she said, "Thank you." while taking her seat. Dirk gently lifted the chair with Skuld sitting in it and pushed her closer up to the table, finally taking the only seat remaining on the Skuld's left.

Each person took their turn shoveling food onto their plate. A quick "Pass me the Soy Sauce" or "Please pass the Fish" were exchanged the room fell awkwardly silent. Urd shifted her eyes back and forth between Skuld, Belldandy, and Keiichi. Megumi glared at Keiichi, causing him to sweatdrop nervously while he looked at Belldandy. Skuld had a nervous gaze set on her Big Sis, while Dirk was just smiling at Skuld.

Each person was surrounded within their own thoughts. Skuld sat there nervously fidgeting with her food, as she was lost in thought. 'Why is Bis Sis smiling at me like that?' She glanced over at Urd, and noticed that she too was staring at her, only with a more sinister grin. 'Oh god, what is she plotting now?' came to Skuld's mind, fearing her future taunting by her eldest sister.

Meanwhile, Urd was concentrating on a way to get Belldandy to loosen up and get a clue. Glancing over at Skuld, she couldn't help but grin. Her plan had worked. The potion she had made a couple of days ago, infused with the custom made lingerie worked its magic on little innocent Skuld like a charm.

Megumi glared at Keiichi with a devilish smile as well, which in turn made Keiichi fell a pair of eyes burning into him. 'Oh god, Megumi, what are you up to now?' he thought.

'I've got to figure out how Dirk made it with Skuld.' Megumi thought taking a quick glance over at Dirk and then Skuld.

Meanwhile Dirk was looking at his sweat heart with a goofy smile on his face, thinking about earlier today.

Feeling all the stares descending upon her, Skuld grasped her stomach with both hands and stood up.

"What's wrong?" Belldandy asked her younger sister.

"Um… I don't feel too well. I think I'll--" Skuld nervously answered, but was cut off immediately.

"Oh my God!" Megumi exclaimed. "Are you pregnant?" she assumed.

"What?!" Keiichi practically fell over backwards in his chair.

"Is everything okay, sweetie?" Dirk asked resting his palm on the tops of her hands.

Urd couldn't help but add fuel to the fire. "Oh, Skuld. Didn't you remember to have him wear protection? I mean, come on, Skuld. If you're going to have sex, you need to think of these things."

"Huh?!" Skuld said frantically looking at Urd, and then glanced over at Belldandy nervously.

Silence filled the room, and all eyes looked upon Belldandy and Skuld.

Belldandy glanced over at Skuld, seeing a very painful discomfort in her eyes. She was on the verge of tears. She smiled up at her little sister and finally said, "Don't be silly. Having sex one time isn't going to make her pregnant."

Skuld collapsed onto the floor, to which Dirk kicked out his chair from behind him fanning her until she regained consciousness.

"Skuld!? Are you okay, come on, wake up." Dirk commanded.

Urd just laughed, unable to contain herself anymore. She was laughing so hard, she had to grasp her own stomach. Keiichi just sat there dumbfounded, looking at Skuld who had collapsed to the floor and at Dirk trying to resurrect her. Megumi continued to stare at Keiichi, half giggling. Finally, Skuld woke back up and Dirk helped her back into her seat. Skuld looked over towards her Big Sis and said in disbelief, "You …. knew?"

"Yes. I overheard Megumi, Urd and Keiichi discussing it in his room. When I saw you two frolicking in the Spa, that confirmed what they were saying." She explained with a gentle smile.

Skuld blushed and looked down at the table in shame. "You're disappointed with me, aren't you." she asked softly.

"Oh, Skuld." Belldandy said, getting up from her seat and hugging Skuld around her back. "Why would I be disappointed with you? No matter what you do, I'm always very proud of your accomplishments." She said with kindness.

"Really?" Skuld answered back almost in disbelief.

"Really." Her older sister replied with confidence.

"I—I hate to be the one to bring this up but….. Um…..is Skuld…… really ….um…pregnant?" Dirk asked sheepishly.

"Of course not, Dirk!" Urd chided. "Do you really think doing it once is going to make a Goddess pregnant? No, it doesn't work the same way as it does between humans." She went on to explain. "A Goddess has to choose to get impregnated if she's intimate with a mortal."

Dirk visibly relaxed in his chair hearing the wonderful news.

"Why?" Skuld continued with the original topic. "Why are you not disappointed?"

Belldandy softly giggled and simply answered her cryptically. "Who am I to judge what you feel is right in your heart?"

"Huh? I don't understand, Big Sis." Skuld replied in confusion.

"Oh god Skuld! You really can be so dense at times." Urd chastised. "What Bell is saying is that you opened your heart to Dirk—you willingly consummated with him. You two are considered partners now." Skuld's eyes opened really big. "So I say, now would probably be the perfect time for Dirk to move in with you." Urd concluded.

"What a wonderful idea Urd!" Belldandy approved.

"That way you two can really get to know each other." Megumi added. "Now if only somebody else here would follow your example— OW!" Keiichi kicked Megumi's calf under the table.

It took a moment for Skuld to process what had just happened. She finally looked up, really at nobody in particular and asked almost in horror, "Does … this mean that….he's going to… be sleeping with me … in my room?"

"Duh." Urd commented glancing up at the ceiling.

"I suggest you eat up. You're really going to need all the energy you can get." Urd finally stated after a few moments of silence.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Skuld glared at Urd.

"Oh, you'll figure it out." Is all Urd said in response.

"Yes, speaking of dinner, let's eat. I'm starved!" Dirk commented enthusiastically, visually unaffected by the earth shattering conversation that just took place, and began digging in.

The rest of dinner was relatively quiet, with the exception of some eye-telepathy going on between Urd, Megumi, and Keiichi, causing the odd outburst of giggles to fill the room. Skuld stared down at her food, eating it slowly.

'You'll figure it out.' … 'When I saw you two frolicking in the Spa, that confirmed what they were saying'…kept running through her head over and over and over again. Finally unable to eat anymore, and with the others starting to break up to do their other various activities, Skuld abruptly left the table and ran to her room, shutting the door behind her.

A few minutes later a soft knock came from her door. Dirk stood outside waiting patiently for Skuld to answer.

"Skuld?" he finally asked when there was no response.

Still after no response, he gently slid the door open to see Skuld sitting on the edge of her bed, gazing at herself in the mirror on the opposite side of the room. Dirk walked in and quietly shut the door behind him. Taking ever careful steps, he approached her and sat down next to her on the bed, when she didn't acknowledge his entrance.

"Hey? Are you okay?" He asked placing his hand on the top of her hand, which was resting on her thigh.

"Yeah." She answered quietly.

"I know they're not going to have it any other way…you know that." Dirk started and paused before turning his head and looking in to her brown eyes. "I'll sleep on the floor over there if you'd like." He finished, pointing over to the far wall away from the bed. "… I'll even turn my back towards you if you'd like." He added on to the end, in an attempt to comfort her.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

Dirk opened his mouth to speak again, but Skuld beat him to it. "No. I won't let you suffer like that. Tonight, you will sleep next to me." She chocked again as another tear came running down her face. She fell over into Dirk's chest and began crying in full force.

'Why is she crying?' Dirk thought as he cupped his hand over her head, gently combing his fingers through her black silky hair over and over again. He took his other arm and wrapped it around her arm and back, pulling her in close. Dirk so desperately wanted to ask her what was wrong but something told him it would be best just to stay quiet this time, and let her cry whatever was bothering her out.

After a few minutes of crying, until she could no longer, she sat up and looked in Dirk's blue eyes. "Thank you. I feel much better now." she commented, smiling at him softly.

'Okay, so apparently women and goddesses are just about the same…doomed to be confusing!' Dirk thought to himself.

About then Skuld's door whipped open and Urd came flying in with Dirk's trunk of stuff. She set it down in the corner next to Skuld's dresser and turned around and left the room winking at Dirk as she shut the door.

They could hear her singsong out in the hallway, "Glorious, glorious television, I finally get to watch my late night soaps in piece and quiet! YAY!" Her voice faded as she went into the living room.

"Well, I guess she's happy." Dirk pointed out the obvious.

Skuld stood up and turned around facing Dirk. Pulling his arm he stood up and followed her to her closet, which was adjacent to her dresser and Dirk's newly placed trunk. She opened the closet door and started rearranging her clothes, making an empty space on the upper right half of the clothes hanging bar.

"What are you doing?" Dirk asked tilting his head slightly.

"I'm making room for your things." She said cheerfully as she worked. "There's no reason now why you have to live out of that trunk anymore."

After she was finished with the closet she stepped over to her dresser and moved a few things out of the third and fourth drawers, placing the neatly stacked piles of clothes on the floor by Dirk's trunk. She opened the trunk and started refolding several of the items, placing each item into an assigned drawer. Underwear, t-shirts, and socks all went into the third drawer, while pull over shirts, jeans and shorts went into the fourth drawer. The remainder of things, mostly button up shirts and a couple of nice slacks got hung up in the closet. Once the trunk was empty, she took the piles of her clothes, and neatly placed them inside the trunk, closing it when she was finished, and moving a few things off the top of her dresser, setting them on top of the trunk lid.

"There." She said, slapping her palms together with a vertical motion. Dirk just stood there like a post watching her as she worked quickly.

"Wow, that was fast." He finally commented.

"Well, yeah, I had a plan." She smiled.

"Um…Dirk?" she quickly started a new conversation.

"Yeah, Skuld?" Dirk answered.

"Would you dance with me again?" she said as she looked upwards into his eyes. Her face was slightly turned downwards as if she were staring at his bare feet.

"Sure." Dirk replied happily. He walked over to the stereo and selected the radio. Finding a station playing a kind of relaxing jazz he turned down the volume to a quieter level and then went over to the lights and turned them off, only allowing the moonlight to fill the room. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust, and once they did, Dirk gently picked up Skuld's left arm, and placed his right arm around her waist. Standing very closely to her, he began to slowly sway taking a step with his left foot, then his right foot slowly moving around the room. Skuld wrapped her arm left arm around Dirk's waist as well, and laid her head down onto his chest. She adored hearing his slow, rhythmic heartbeat. It had a very calming and relaxing quality to it.

After a few songs of slow dancing, Skuld gave a slight yawn, her breath warmed the cloth on Dirk's chest.

"Are you ready to turn in for the night?" Dirk asked quietly, still dancing with her.

"Yeah. I'm exhausted." She replied, giving another slight yawn.

Dirk maneuvered them over to the bed and gently sat her down on the edge. Releasing his hold on her, he walked over to the dresser and stood there for a moment before asking. "Skuld? What do you usually wear to bed?"

"Skuld blushed a little, had anybody been able to see it. She replied, "The second drawer, you'll find a night gown over on the right. I'll wear that tonight."

Dirk opened the mentioned drawer and felt around the various strapping until he found something silky smooth on the right side. Pulling it out of the drawer revealed a thin strapped U-neck night gown with lace trimming that hung slightly shorter than three feet. He closed her dresser drawer and returned over to the bed, handing her the attire. He quickly turned around and went towards the dresser again, opening the third drawer in search for something to wear. His pajamas still hadn't been cleaned from earlier today, he looked around and found one of his longer than normal T-shirts. Stripping off his exterior clothing he put the T-shirt on and turned around back towards Skuld, who was standing by the bed being bathed by moonlight.

She glowed softly in this light, which revealed to no surprise that her nightgown was also a pastel pink. It hung down to about her mid-thigh, and showed just a little of her curves along her waist line. He walked over to her and softly asked, "Would you like the inside or the outside?"

It really didn't matter which side either one of them took. Skuld only had a twin sized bed, which was barely enough room for one person to stretch out on, let alone two nearly full grown teenagers.

"I would like the inside, if you don't mind." She answered just as softly.

Her heart was racing, she was genuinely nervous. She climbed into the bed, lifting the sheet up, and sliding down between the two sheets. Once she had adjusted her nightgown, she patently waited for Dirk to join her. Dirk partially lifted up the sheet and climbed in as well. Skuld was lying on her side, facing him. Dirk quickly realized that sleeping on his back, wouldn't work due to the width restriction of the bed. He turned on his side facing Skuld. Both of them stared into each other's eyes.

"So… now what?" Skuld finally asked.

"I think we just close our eyes… and fall asleep." Dirk commented. The jazz music was still softly playing in the background which greatly helped put at ease the two newly partnered teenagers.

A few minutes went by. Two songs on the radio filled the time, all the while, Skuld nervously stared into Dirk's eyes.

"I've got an idea." Dirk finally suggested.

"What's that?" Skuld replied curiously.

"Ya wanna sleep 'spoon style'?"

"Um…I guess, okay." Skuld replied, not really knowing what he was talking about.

"Okay, what you'll want to do is turn around with your back facing me. Just get comfortable." Dirk advised.

"Okay." Skuld replied while turning over.

Once she was done, Dirk maneuvered himself closer to her and gently placed his arm around her waist, placing his legs right up against hers, and his chest against her back. He purposely created a distance between his pelvic region and her butt. Within a few minutes, Dirk heard Skuld quietly snoozing away. Closing his eyes he entered Dreamland.


	12. Uncontrollable Urges

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Dirk woke up before dawn to the sound of birds chirping out Skuld's window. She usually leaves her window open during this time of year for the gentle breeze during the night. He felt something heavy weighing his chest down, glancing down he saw Skuld's head resting on his chest, with her one arm crossed over his upper chest, and she had one leg straddling both of his legs, bent at her knee, with her foot resting on the mattress beside his feet.

Dirk had his arm wrapped around her back and the other arm was lying on the bed next to him, both of his legs were straight as he laid on his back.

She quietly snoozed, taking clam relaxed breathes in and then exhaling out just as slowly. Dirk decided to lay there a while and watch his goddess-girl-friend rest comfortably. Until he was visited by the bladder fairy, causing a lump to surge upwards, rubbing into the front of Skuld's pelvis.

"Oh, god…. not now…." he silently begged the Almighty, but it was no use. He didn't want to disturb her, but at the same time, he felt like his bladder was going to explode, and until he emptied that overly full bladder, his morning stiffy wouldn't go away either.

Skuld silently moaned as his hardened self pulsed between his underwear and her nightgown. She shifted over to her right, having her one leg dangling off the bed now, she pushed herself up a bit allowing her pleasure spot to be massaged better. Her hands wandered Dirk's body until she found his hand idly resting on the bed beside him. She picked it up, maneuvering it above her thigh and gently pushed his fingers towards her.

"No, I can't….she's not even awake!" Dirk panicked fighting off Skuld's arm handling. She popped open her eyes staring down his body. Slowly she lifted herself up, putting most of her weight on her leg that was still on the bed, the rest was on him.

"You're awake?!" Dirk nearly exploded with half relief and half worry.

"Yeah, silly. I was awake the whole time." Skuld replied smiling down at him, while still rubbing herself against his morning wood.

"And you…." Dirk stopped, not knowing what else to say. He was dumbfounded.

Skuld bent over and kissed him on his lips passionately and whispered, "I heard that morning sex is the best sex." She giggled quietly.

"Um…. Okay.? Could I go pee first though?" Dirk begged, but not turning down her offer.

Skuld giggled and dismounted him saying, "Sure. But hurry up!" she said giving him a poke on the side of his waist.

Dirk got up off the bed and quickly ran to the bathroom. Once there he stood there for a good minute before he was relaxed enough to pee. Dirk sighed in relief, staring at the toilet as the water turned a shade of deep yellow. After he was finished he flushed and rinsed up. He calmly walked back to Skuld's room, opened the door and quickly shut it. Turning around, he saw Skuld was already lying down on the bed, still in her nightgown with her legs closed and straight. She had her hands resting on her stomach and was holding something balled up in her palms as she stared up to the ceiling.

Dirk approached her, and when he reached her, she sat up with little effort, swung her legs off the bed and stood up, all in one fluid movement.

"Hold this for me, please." She said offering the object she was holding to Dirk. He held out his open palms ready to accept many things, however, the only thing that was dropped into his awaiting hands was Skuld's pink panties.

She softly knelt down on the floor, and reached up to Dirk's waist, pulling off his underwear, she threw it across the room. She gazed at his shrunk penis and looked up at him with a gentle smile, she reached her hand up and began toying with the mass of flesh. Dirk bent down and lifted Skuld to her feet, dropping her underwear to the floor in the process. He guided her back down onto the bed and gently touched her thigh closest to him, pulling her gown up with his fingers delicately. After she was exposed, he took his finger and drug it back down between her legs, causing Skuld to giggle with a ticklish sensation, and she spread her legs apart.

"I've got an idea." He said quietly. He stood up and crawled onto the bed, and sat against the headboard with his legs outstretched.

"Come here." he commanded softly. Skuld stood up and started to sit down next to him, when Dirk stopped her.

"No, sit on me, and look into my eyes." He smiled.

Skuld figured out what he was going for and carefully sat down on his thighs, spreading her legs widely apart, and crossing them behind his back.

"Now what?" she asked.

Dirk reached over to her and took a hold of the bottom of her night gown. Gently he pulled it up, first exposing her navel, and then her chest. Finally, he lifted the silk over her head and set it down beside them on the bed inside-out. Seeing his girl friend naked once more, being bathed in the predawn light, he grew rapidly. Dirk softly touched her bare chest. Skuld in return gently took hold of his forming boner and started rubbing back and forth with her closed hand wrapped around it. Taking her other free hand, she placed it between her legs, and started to gently massage herself in a circular pattern.

"Hold me." Skuld whispered, slightly panting.

Dirk glided his hands around her chest, under her arms, ending where they met behind her back. He glanced down to see what she was doing, which was an instant woody for him, as he sprung to maximum length, pulsing in her hand.

"Forgive me if I .. offend you, Skuld." Dirk started, looking into her eyes.

"You can tell me anything." Skuld replied seductivly.

"How long have you …um…. have you um… touched yourself?"

Skuld blushed and diverted her eyes from him, continuing to please both of them with her hands. After a moment, she glanced back into his eyes, and said, "Not long." With a quieted giggle.

She suddenly stopped and knelt up off of Dirk's body. She positioned herself right above Dirk's manhood, and slowly descended as she forced herself open with both of her hands. Dirk gently guided himself inside of her, and Skuld began squirming to whatever felt good to her.

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Meanwhile outside in front of the temple, the fresh morning dew on the grass was being pulled up, and collected towards one point, about five feet off the ground. After the dew was all collected, any of the moister remaining in the air was pulled towards the mass, forming two rings of water. The first was slowly moving clockwise, while the second ring, was only six inches behind the first one, was rotating counter-clockwise.

The sky began to cloud over with thick dark clouds, and a soft rumbling of thunder could be heard in the background. With each passing moment the wind began to pick up and the thunder boomed louder, flashes of lightning lit up the clouded sky

Keiichi was the first to wake up to a crack of thunder exploding outside his window as he practically jumped out of his bed.

"Huh? I thought the weather was supposed to be fair with a high of 78." Keiichi said confused as he walked outside of his room. He stumbled around the dark hallway until he came to the front door. Upon opening it, he saw two large rings of water about seven feet in diameter and growing with each bolt of lighting that struck it. He glanced around to see the trees being blown so hard that they were being stripped of their leaves, and bent over, almost touching the ground. Quickly Keiichi shut the door, using all his might against the gale force wind.

Urd was next who awoke to hearing the rustling wind from the front door. She entered the living room and spotted Keiichi standing with his back against the door panting.

"Let me guess…" Urd said sarcastically.

"I would just show you if I know I could get this door shut again." Keiichi responded.

"Well, I'll just take a look for myself." She said plainly, as she phased through the door. About two seconds later she came flying back through the same door.

"That's a water element spell." Urd declared. "What's that brat up to now?" she scoffed, as she marched down towards Skuld's room. Slamming her door wide open she flipped on the light switch. Both Skuld and Dirk stopped their movements and squeezed their eyes shut.

"AHhhh! Who turned on the light!" Skuld yelled, while sitting on top of Dirk.

"I should have figured you'd be going at it again." Urd sighed. "Come here. I want to show you something." Urd said as she turned and left the room.

"In a minute!" Skuld yelled out. "I'm not finished yet!"

Urd stomped back into her room and yanked Skuld's body off of Dirk, forcing both lovers onto the cold wooden floor.

"Hey!" Skuld said angrily staring up at her eldest sister. "How dare you--!" Urd cut her off.

"I mean, now." Urd replied demandingly as she walked out of the room for the second time.

Skuld jogged over to her closet and picked out the first thing she could grab, which happened to be a red half shirt, with a black pleated skirt. Quickly she threw them on and took off down the hall. Meanwhile, Dirk just sat up, and walked over to the dresser, grabbing whatever fell into his hand and put them on, running after Skuld.

Belldandy came out of her room hearing all the commotion.

"What's wrong?" she asked as Dirk ran past her.

"Um… I don't know!" he threw back at her coming to a screeching halt at the front door. His jaw dropped in awe.

"What…..is…….that?" He said slowly.

"This is your doing Skuld. You need to clean it up." Urd chastised her youngest sister.

"B—But…" Skuld stuttered.

Belldandy came to the front door seeing the rings of water, which by this time had grown to over 15 feet in diameter.

"Sing Skuld." Belldandy said loudly to overcome the whirling wind from outside.

"Huh? Sing what?" she answered in confusion.

Just then a bolt of lightning hit the first ring. Electricity encircled the water ring, and sparks shot back and forth crossing the diameter of the ring in all directions. Finally three sparks collided in the center and shot out towards the second ring, only to be captured by its 'gravity'. Sparks continued to jump from one point to the other, spanning the diameter of the second ring. Shortly another bolt of lighting hit the water rings, consuming both of them in a brilliant blaze of light. The second ring that was moving counter-clockwise, collapsed in on itself, and then exploded inside the first ring, forming a plane of water to cover the entire diameter.

"That's a planar portal. Defiantly not good." Urd stated.

Belldandy knelt down to Skuld and said again, "You have to sing…with all of your heart."

A creature about four feet high by two feet wide stepped out of the portal. It looked like a cross between a large ant, and a human, but it was a translucent green color. One by one, more of the creatures stepped through the gate and began circling the temple. Keiichi grabbed the first thing he could reach – a broom. He broke the broom bottom off, and grasped it like a staff.

Megumi yawned and awoke to her alarm which was set precisely for 5:30 a.m. She started her morning routine, getting ready for class, but was stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the hideous creatures staring back at her through the windows.

"AHHHHHH!" She screamed in terror.

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Meanwhile out front.

"I … I need help, Big Sis." Skuld pleaded.

"We can not help you. This is something that only you can do." Belldandy sadly said.

Dirk stepped closer to Skuld and grabbed her hand closest to his. He turned to face her, looking right into her large brown eyes, and smiled saying, "I know you can do this. I believe in you. You Skuld. I believe in you." he said, gently holding her hand in his.

"Give them some room, Urd commanded as she flew up and started throwing fireballs at the approaching monsters that were getting too close to Skuld and Dirk. Keiichi ran out side, yelling a battle cry as he held the stick with both hands, charging at the creatures. Belldandy stepped behind Skuld and began chanting with her arms extended.

Skuld just stood there rigid with fear. Dirk could tell that she was obviously nervous. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that she has stage-fright. Dirk stepped in front of her and looked into her eyes.

"Just focus on me." he said softly. "What does your heart say about me?" he asked. He let go of her hand and wrapped his arms around her waist, meeting on her back. He continued to stare into her eyes.

Skuld opened her mouth, and exhaled. Taking a deep breath in again, she began a singing a sweet melody of notes.

Meanwhile, Keiichi was clobbering creature after creature. His makeshift staff was slicing through them as if they were made of nothing but water. With each fireball that Urd managed to successfully hit one of them, the creature exploded into a fire-geyser five feet wide, igniting any surrounding creatures along with it.

Megumi was trapped inside of the Temple. Creatures came in through the windows, cracks in the walls, anywhere there was the tiniest separation. In desperation, she reached for the first thing she could throw and chucked it at a group of them, blowing a hole in the middle of one of their chests, it melted to the floor into a puddle of water.

Skuld closed her eyes, and continued singing. Dirk moved around to her back, still holding Skuld at her waist. Her body felt warm in the cold wind. She raised her arms up higher and sung louder, almost in a commanding sort of way.

With all the fighting going on, one would think that the home team was winning; however, this wasn't the case. Hundreds of these creatures were pouring out from the portal, which had stopped growing in size, but was rotating clockwise much faster, forcing things to be pushed outwards from the portal.

Belldandy reached out and touched Dirk on his shoulders, which he acted as a conduit pouring the majority of her power into Skuld's body. He felt an unusual tingling sensation move throughout his whole body while the energy was transferring from one sister to the other. As Skuld continued to sing, she aimed her arms towards the portal gate and clapped them together, still with her eyes closed. The portal immediately collapsed down in size and then violently exploded in all directions, drenching everyone. The force of the explosion caused the majority of the creatures to be thrown into the air, landing all around, some of which were carried all the way to the closest town, and the University. Skuld opened her eyes and pointed with her fingers at each one of the creatures still attacking her family. With each yank of her arm, she violently extended it, causing a wave of force to obliterate the water-creature into a fine mist, evaporating into the air.

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Seventeen minutes later, all the fighting was finished. Skuld collapsed to the ground, but thanks to Dirk, he managed to catch her. Sweeping her up into his arms, he cradled her, carefully walking back to their bedroom. He gently laid her down and pulled the cover up over her near frozen body. She laid there shivering.

"Belldandy!? Urd?! Anybody?!" he yelled from inside her room. In about three seconds, everyone came running in to her room.

"What's happening to her?" Dirk panicked.

"She used an awful lot of power." Belldandy said weakly. Keiichi caught Belldandy just as she was beginning to wobble back and fourth. He carried her to her own room and laid her down in her bed as well.

"She'll be alright. She just needs some rest." Urd said not a least bit concerned. She turned and walked out the door.

Megumi was the only other visitor left in Skuld's room. She walked up to Skuld, and touched the back of her hand to her cheek, and quickly pulled it away shouting, "Yickes! She's cold!!"

"Yeah. I'm worried, despite what Urd says." Dirk commented.

"Here, she can use my blanket, and I'll go get Keiichi's as well. She needs to warm up!" she said as she ran out of Skuld's room. A moment later she returned with two more blankets and a very heavy and fluffy red comforter. Megumi and Dirk helped each other unfold the blankets and gently placed each one on the bed.

"I guess you would like to sit by her, huh?" she asked rhetorically after they were done.

"Yeah." Dirk responded, but Megumi had already left the room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

Seeing that it was now only Skuld and himself in her room, he stripped down to his underwear and climbed into the bed, stripping Skuld's outfit off as well. He froze his front side cuddling with her, but he knew the fastest way to heat somebody up was with body heat. He gently rubbed her arms and legs with his hands and then did the same with her waist, chest, and back, repeating his cycle every few minutes. Soon after a while, he fell back to sleep, with his arms and legs wrapped around her cool body.


	13. If Wishes Could

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Hours later, Skuld woke up under the massive amounts of covers, surrounded by Dirk's warm body. She quietly voiced a relaxing sigh and smiled, turning her head towards Dirk, who was still asleep.

"Don't ever leave me, Dirk. I don't know what I would do…if I ever lost you." she whispered in his ear.

A knock came from her door.

"Yes?" Skuld answered from her bed.

The door slid open and Belldandy entered with some soup and tea.

"I hope you're hungry. I made you some Miso Soup and some Chai Green Tea." She said smiling.

"I'm starved." Skuld answered enthusiastically.

"You certainly look comfortable, all snuggled up." Belldandy giggled softly, holding a palm up to her lips.

"Yeah. I'm glad he came here all those years ago." Skuld reminisced.

"Do you need anything else?" her older sister asked.

"Nah, I don't think so." Skuld replied.

"Okay." Belldandy answered and walked out of her room, noticing the pile of clothes from this morning. She giggled as she shut the door and walked down the hallway.

"What's so funny?" Urd asked, looking up from her Soap Opera.

"I really never imagined 'little' Skuld to be so sexually active." Belldandy stated as she sat down next to Urd.

"You know…she's not all that 'little' any more. She's growing up into a young woman." Urd replied.

"I know she is…and I'm happy for her…truly very happy for her. I'm proud of her, that she found somebody so quickly that truly loves her. Wish, or no wish, I know those two genuinely love one another." Belldandy elaborated.

Urd chucked, "…and to think that all of this just started a few days ago. I don't think I could go back to the way it used to be around here." Urd admitted.

"Speaking of adventures…" Urd switched the subject abruptly, "When are you and Keiichi going to … you know…get hooked up?" Urd devilishly smiled.

"I honestly have no idea. I don't know what he's waiting for. He's already admitted that he loves me, and he knows I love him, so I don't understand what's stopping him from us moving to the next step in our relationship." Belldandy expressed.

"Does he? Does he really know that you'll stand by him no matter what?" Urd asked honestly.

"I—I think so." Belldandy answered not all that confidently.

"Maybe you should express that to him when he comes home from classes tonight." Urd suggested.

"I'll try. But he's so…. nervous when he tries to express how he feels." Belldandy replied reluctantly.

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Meanwhile in Skuld's room…

Skuld very gently and carefully untangled herself from Dirk's body. She slowly slid out of the bed, careful not to disturb the blankets or the mattress as she quietly slid down to the floor. Once out of the bed, she walked over to where Dirk stripped her outfit she was wearing this morning, and put it back on, along with a pair of panties and a bra. Then she sat down on the floor in front of the tray that Belldandy had brought her and quickly slurped both the tea and the soup down in less than a couple of minutes. After she was finished, she walked into the bathroom, and combed her hair, ridding it of all the knots that had formed over the past couple of days. She quietly hummed a melody as she applied a bright cherry red ribbon to her hair, accenting her blouse.

She came out of the bathroom and walked into the kitchen grabbing a bunch of food out of the refrigerator. Taking a seat at the table, she began to spread everything out in front of her. Both Urd and Belldandy turned to see who was making all the noise. Seeing it was Skuld, Belldandy stood up and went over towards her little sister.

"My, you look…. " Belldandy paused while trying to think of an appropriate word to describe what she was seeing. Skuld paused what she was doing and looked up at her Big Sis with anticipation. "…absolutely beautiful." Belldandy finished.

"You really think so?" Skuld replied.

"Oh yes. I think Dirk is in for a very pleasurable surprise when he wakes up." Belldandy giggled softly.

Skuld had the biggest smile on you'd ever seen on her. Bis Sis acknowledged out loud that she was beautiful…and not just cute or adorable. No, she was beautiful. Beauty that only a Goddess could deserve. Skuld seemed to glow with joy as she sat there frozen in her thoughts. Dirk came shuffling out of Skuld's room and sat down at the table across from Skuld. Still half asleep, it was a miracle that he managed to get dressed, let alone properly.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dirk." Belldandy said cheerfully.

Dirk yawned before turning his head towards the familiar voice. Rubbing his eyes, he answered, "Good morning."

Skuld broke out of her daze and giggled as he answered her older sister.

"Would you like to share a lunch with me?" Skuld asked Dirk.

"Huh?" He looked dead ahead of him, seeing the young beauty sitting across from him. "Wow." He said as he opened his eyes to their maximum size.

Both Skuld and Belldandy giggled at the compliment. If one listened closely enough, they would hear Urd sputter a silent chuckle at the compliment as well, while watching her show.

"Um, yeah….sure…That would be wonderful, Skuld." He finally answered her question.

"Great!" she squealed, grabbing up the things she dumped them into a nearby basket and grabbed Dirk by the arm, rushing out the front door. She stopped not too far away from the Temple. Quickly she reached into the basket and produced a thin blanket, whipping it into the air, she gently set it down spread out and sat down on one side, removing various items from the randomly packed basket. Dirk sat down facing her. The rays of golden sunlight hit her just right. She was outstandingly attractive. The gentle wind fluttered her hair behind her and to the side as she prepared a couple of rice cakes.

Once she was finished rolling the rice cakes, she glanced up at Dirk, and noticed him staring at her intensely. "Is there something wrong?" Skuld asked almost naively.

"No, nothing at all. I was just admiring how pretty you are today." He complimented her again.

"Thank you." Skuld blushed a bit and picked up a freshly made rice cake. "I hope I made these right." She said nervously taking a bite of the one in her hand.

Dirk picked up the next one in line and quickly bit into it. While it wasn't an outstanding rice cake, it was defiantly made by his Skuld, and that was better than anybody else's in the world.

"This is wonderful!" he exclaimed.

Skuld looked at him puzzled. Sure they tasted okay, but nowhere near as good as Bis Sis's rice cakes. 'Oh well, as long as he likes them…' she thought to herself, taking another bite, smiling in between chews.

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Meanwhile a scratched up grey van pulled up out front of the temple. Squeaking as the driver applied the breaks. Three rather large looking men hopped out of all the doors carrying quite a lot of fire power in rifles, automatic machine guns and grenades. One of the larger guys carried a Tommy Gun and had two extra inserts of ammo strapped to his chest.

"There she is." Alex pointed over towards a hill not to far from where they were. "Alright, you and you, take a flanking position around the temple. I'll set up a sniper point over there," he said pointing to a nearby tree. "On the signal, rush her. The goal is to capture, but if this turns ugly, use whatever means necessary to take her out—or anybody else that get's in your way." Alex said. The three men broke off to their assigned positions.

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About ten minutes later Keiichi pulled up with Megumi following closely. Removing their helmets, they noticed the strange van parked in the front.

"I wonder if we have company?" Keiichi said curiously.

"I'm sure somebody would have mentioned—" Megumi stopped in mid sentence. "K? Is that…." She said pointing over to one of the men hiding behind a fat tree.

"SKULD!... DIRK!!...LOOK OUT!!" Keiichi yelled at the top of his lungs.

Immediately the group opened fire upon Skuld's little picnic. Grass and dirt went flying everywhere. Dirk leapt up at near the speed of lighting and grabbed Skuld, pulling her out of the way from the spray of bullets that shot into a tree behind where she was sitting.

"AHHHHHH!" Skuld screamed at the top of her lungs, as more bullets came flying through the air, obliterating her picnic setting.

Urd and Belldandy came running out of the front of the temple, and almost instantly began taking a spray of bullets aimed by one of the flankers.

"What the HELL!" Urd yelled in anger, as she phased through the ceiling to find Alex firing a high powered rifle in Skuld's direction.

"HEY!! You leave my sister alone!" Urd said as dark clouds quickly formed above the temple. He whipped around and opened fire on her at point blank range. She leapt into the air, performing a myriad of acrobatics, dodging each bullet.

As luck would have it, Mara stealthily came flying towards the temple. Seeing and hearing the grand battle going on, she couldn't help but get involved.

"Is that all you got…puny human!" Urd challenged Alex, calling forth a lightning strike to hit the roof of the temple. Alex rolled over to start firing on her right as the bolt impacted where he just was lying, leaving a smoldering scorch mark behind.

Mara snuck around the back of the temple and entered through a window. She found Belldandy behind a wall chanting and praying to the Wind Spirits. Taking her by surprise, she quickly sealed her powers away, and at the end of Belldandy's call, nothing happened.

"Huh?" She asked confused. She started praying again, only to be knocked unconscious by the broom stick that Keiichi used earlier this morning fighting off water-elementals. Belldandy collapsed to the floor, rendering her useless. Mara confidently walked up to the television and turned on a station playing Anka (Polka) music. Cranking the volume to its maximum level, it drowned out the gun fire within a fifty foot radius of the speakers. Urd fell down to the ground hard, as she fell asleep in mid air hearing the annoying music.

"What's happening. Urd!! Get up!" Keiichi rushed over to her, and began shaking her violently.

"Skuld!!" Megumi cried out, but it wasn't any use. She couldn't hear her warnings.

Skuld and Dirk dove behind a tree which was being slowly obliterated piece by piece. "Come on, we've gotta to move. This tree isn't going to last much longer." Dirk advised.

Just as the two got up and ran to the next obstacle, Alex chucked a hand grenade down to where Megumi was standing. Dirk saw him throw it, and turned looking at Megumi. Placing his hands around his mouth, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "MEGUMI! GRENADE!!! MOVE!!!!!" he warned, she got the message and took a couple of steps before the grenade exploded, releasing shrapnel all around. Many tiny fragments of sharp metal bits went tearing into Megumi's skin, as she collapsed down on the ground.

Alex took aim through his scope on Dirk who was busy trying to warn Megumi. Having him in his crosshairs, he gently squeezed the trigger, releasing the bullet, flying almost faster than the speed of sound. It ruptured the sound barrier, passing through Dirk's chest, lodging itself in a tree behind him. Dirk collapsed to the ground clutching his chest as blood spat out of the entrance and exit piercings.

Skuld whipped her head around to see Dirk scream in agony falling down to the ground. She stopped in her tracks, her forward momentum forced her to slide, as her backside met the dirt. Bullets went flying over head as she scrambled to find protection, which she found cover behind a nearby tree to Dirk. While hiding behind the tree she outstretched her hand, stretching all she could, just barely able to touch his shirt with her middle finger.

The firing abruptly stopped and the two men came running out from their hiding positions. The two men on the ground rapidly approached her, each one carrying a set of handcuffs. Skuld stepped out from the tree she was hiding behind and quickly chanted something, clapping her hands together, a force field of dense water enveloped Dirk and Skuld. The two men bounced off of it as if it were made of rubber, both flying in the opposite direction, one crashing into a tree, the other one skimmed the surface of the Earth for a few feet. Alex opened fire at the blue bubble, his bullets ricocheted off in random directions as he set the rifle to full automatic mode.

Skuld knelt down beside Dirk and rolled him over onto his back. He gazed up at her form as his eyesight began to fade to blackness. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She knew that Belldandy could save his life, and she didn't know that spell yet.

"I …..Love……You." Dirk said slowly taking a gasp between each word. He lifted his arm and took her warm hand into his and gently squeezed. He knew he was dying, and he could tell that Skuld couldn't stop it, by the fact she was crying instead of chanting.

"I love you too, sweetie." Skuld said taking her other hand, and gently caressing his cheek. Dirk exhaled for the last time, closing his eyes, and dropping his arm to the ground, releasing Skuld's hand from his grasp.

Skuld's eyes welled up with more tears. The sky filled with bright sparkles, and time seemed to have stopped frozen. Bullets stayed put in mid air, not moving an inch. Mara who was on her way outside, was stuck just past the front door of the temple. Her water-shield froze with ripples of tiny waves echoing from where bullets impacted and bounced off of its surface.

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The speckles of light came raining down, mostly upon Skuld, but a few also on Keiichi and Megumi. Images surged through Skuld's memory at an rushing pace. Waking up on an airplane with Alex staring down at her, fleeing from the moving van on the road, almost getting hit by a silver car. Seeing an older, more matured Dirk picking her up and setting her down inside his car. Speeding down the highway at extremely fast speeds, dodging cars left and right, just barely missing them. Arriving at the Dairy Queen and having Dirk escort her to the ladies room, and then eating all the ice cream he paid for. Waking up in that dreaded grey concrete room, being stripped by the awful man…feeling panicked causing it to rain hot water, waking up to see Dirk's smiling face over her. Arriving back at the temple with Dirk, everyone meeting him for the first time. Her handing him a towel to dry off with. Everybody eating breakfast around the table, hearing Dirk's wish.

"…I only wish that I could share all those experiences with you… and watch you grow up into the beautiful woman Belldandy claims that you'll be. -- I really hope to stay your friend forever so we could share our lives. I never want to forget you…"

The images morphed that Urd giving her the black lingerie outfit that she later rediscovered in the garage. She remembered the warm, and intense feeling of being aroused while wearing the outfit, and seeing a younger teenaged Dirk walk into her room. She recalled the wonderful feelings of pleasure that the two of them had shared, and the fun in the bath they had together. The images blurred out and then back in as she remembered dancing for the first time in Dirk's capable hands and laughing most of the time. The overpowering feeling of love filled her heart. Images of dinner later on, embarrassingly revealing that Dirk and Skuld were intimate, and Urd's declaration that they should now share the same room. She remembered dancing again in Dirk's arms to the slow and relaxing Jazz last night and then sleeping spoon style with Dirk cuddling her.

The images faded to black and then lit back up as she recalled the morning after, waking up and feeling the desire to be intimate again with her love, and with it being interrupted by Urd barging into their room. Remembering feeling Dirk place his arms around her as she sung to stop the water-plane portal, wiping out most of the other elementals along with it. Finally she remembered the last few moments she shared with Dirk. Eating a late lunch, him complimenting her on her cooking, saying it was the best, when she knew it wasn't. Scrambling around dodging bullets, and finally seeing Dirk collapse to the ground as he was shot through his chest.

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She collapsed down onto her knees, folding her body over his, releasing a fury of tears, weeping into his bloody shirt. Time resumed to its normal speed. Bullets resumed flying through the air, Mara quickly approached the water bubble protecting Skuld with her now dead love. Mara began throwing energy balls at her shield forcing it to slowly collapse. Skuld stood up, tears still running down her face. She clenched her teeth down hard, staring at Mara with eyes full of anger. She raised her arms towards the sky, touching them on the inside of her bubble. Singing a loud chaotic melody she swung them down and brought them back up in front of her, making a very loud clap. Water came flying out of her body at tidal forces, blowing Mara back and ramming her against a tree, quickly soaking the dirt she was standing on, she slowly submerged into the waterlogged mud.

She turned towards one of the men that was on the ground, and waived her left arm, flinging it violently to the side. A three inch stream of rushing water whipped from her palm, slicing the guy in half. She turned to face the other guy who was still laying on the ground. She took her right hand and flung it violently in the air, and forced it back down to the ground, causing another three inch whip of water to come slamming down from above, obliterating him into shards of flesh.

Alex seeing what had just become of Terry and Jeff, opened fire with his big gun, and began launching grenades at the tiny crazy girl. She slowly approached the temple glaring at him the whole time. She hopped up, landing on her right foot, she sprung off of it, gliding into the air, landing on top of the temple, cracking the roof where she landed. Alex whipped out a 9mm pistol and began assaulting her at point blank range. Skuld glared at Alex. Remembering his attitude while she was held hostage, not allowing her to wipe, not allowing her privacy…hitting her, slapping her. But most importantly, the feeling that brought up the most pain, the most anger, the true hatred for him, was the memory of Dirk falling to the ground by his bullet.

Alex started to scamper away on his back, kicking his feet and wildly flailing his limbs about trying to get away from Skuld. Seeing the pure hatred in her eyes, for the first time in his life, he was truly scared. She clasped her hands together, and then in one smooth motion, she gripped something. A handle of silver and gold formed inside her closed fists. A rippled bluish-red katana-like blade shot out from both sides of the handle and quickly became harder than steel. Skuld raised her arms up and charged the pathetic man.

One swipe after another, she butchered him into several pieces. Chunks of flesh, muscle and bone went flying through the air, landing all over the grounds of the temple. She screamed a grunt with each hack, un-relentlessly pursuing her victim, showing not a drop of remorse or mercy.

Belldandy woke up hearing the relative silence outside, except from the screams of Skuld coming from above. She ran over to the television and hit the off switch. Urd regained consciousness again, and heard the screams of anger as well. Both sisters ran outside to see Skuld with a double bladed sword hacking at something, using the sword as a staff. Urd flew up to the roof seeing the gross mess of mutilated pulp that remained of the sniper.

"Skuld! Skuld….! Stop... It's okay now…." Urd tried to calm the girl down, but it was of no use, she completely ignored Urd, she was blinded by fury.

"Belldandy, I need you up here…now!" Urd yelled down to her younger sister.

Belldandy quickly chanted up a spell and levitated upwards to the room, seeing Skuld going through a fit of horrible rage, she was almost scared to approach her.

"Skuld? Skuld…calm down…it's over now." she said as she gently touched her shoulder. Skuld whipped around and just about sliced into Belldandy stomach, but realizing who it was, she dropped the sword out of her hands, causing it to go flying off, finally stabbing the ground with one of the blades.

"Hey…it's okay now." Belldandy said calmly.

Skuld collapsed into Belldandy's robes, and began weeping again uncontrollably. Belldandy in return gently held her little sister close to her as she scanned the area for everyone.

"Shhhhh, calm down, it's okay." She cooed while gently stroking her black hair.

Finally Skuld said something muffled into Belldandy's chest in between sobs. "He's… dead." She continued crying. Turning her head to the side, so Urd and Belldandy could her better, she said it again. "He's dead." She sniffled. "My savior…my boyfriend…my love….. they killed him." She sobbed further. Belldandy cradled her head, gently running her fingers through her black hair.


	14. Stillness of Nightfall

**Disclaimer:** Ah! My Goddess and all its associated characters are owned by their creator, Kosuki Fujishima ( © 1988 – 2007 ) Any other characters specifically created for this fictional work are fictitious. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

My personal gratitude goes to Mr. Kosuki Fujishima for creating the wonderful Manga, characters, settings, and plots that this fiction is based on.

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Orange rays of cool sunshine filled the living room of the Temple. Belldandy was on the couch still cuddling Skuld, still gently running her fingertips though her black hair. Skuld was sitting next to her bigger sister with her head resting on her chest, gazing at the television. Her legs were tucked to her side, as she laid partially sitting up, partially laying on her side. Urd sat on the other side of Skuld next to her feet, gazing at the television, really ignoring it, paying more attention to Skuld.

Megumi stumbled out of her room and sat down in the next couch over, glancing at Skuld with sad eyes. She looked over at Urd and gave her gratitude by saying, "Thank you for healing me, Urd."

"Don't mention it." Urd waived her hand dismissidly.

A few minutes later Keiichi stepped out of his room, holding a hand to his head, taking a seat next to Belldandy. He too took a glance at Skuld. Her eyes were bloodshot red, she had cried herself dry, unable to cry any more. He leaned over to Belldandy and whispered, "Is she okay?"

Belldandy looked over towards Keiichi and answered. "Yeah. She's fine now. Still a little shaken and traumatized, but she's better now."

Skuld sat up and slowly stood up. She walked over to the window and stared out the large window, watching the setting sun bathe the torn up landscaping around the temple. Her eyes focused on where Dirk was laying. All eyes were staring at her, as she slowly walked out side, not bothering to put her shoes on. She walked up and knelt down beside Dirk's cool body, placing her right hand on his chest. Glancing over to where her sword still stuck into the Earth, she stood up and grabbed it in the middle by its handle.

She targeted a near by tree, and charged it at a full speed sprint, raising the sword and slashing downwards twice into the trunk of the tree. It came crashing down into the yard and a seven foot length of it fell down to the ground next to Skuld. Throwing down the sword she grabbed the trunk Touching the surface of the wood, she sung a quiet melody, a stream of water dripped from her fingers, and carved into the wood, creating an indention large enough for Dirk to rest in.

Picking up her sword again, she hacked at the fallen remnants of the tree, carving it up into a couple of supports about three feet high and some kindling. Dropping the sword for the last time, she approached Dirk's body and picked his dead weight up, stumbling over to the make-shift alter.

"Maybe we should go help her." Keiichi said as he looked out the window. Turning towards the door, Belldandy stopped him by touching his arm.

"No, we shouldn't. This is something that she has to do….by herself." She responded.

After Skuld successfully placed Dirk up on the pedestal she collected the kindling and placed all of it beneath the large log that Dirk was on. Then taking a couple of steps back, she gazed upon Dirk's body for the last time. A lone tear ran down her cheek as she held out her palm, cupping it slightly. She softly sung another melody, forming a puddle in her hand. Taking her other hand, she snapped her fingers almost directly on top of the liquid, causing it to ignite into a rather large orange flame. She slowly walked up to the kindling, knelt down, and tilted her hand downwards, allowing the flame to drizzle off of her hand, igniting the scraps of wood.

Taking another few steps back as the structure became engulfed in flames, lighting the entire temple grounds after the sunlight had long since faded away. Within moments, she was joined by Keiichi, Megumi, Belldandy, and Urd. Each holding each others hands, placing Skuld in the middle between Belldandy and Urd. Her two elder sisters gently grasped her hands as Skuld stood there watching the fire burn intensely.

Urd glanced down at her kid sister and asked, "Are you okay?"

Skuld looked up at Urd and responded. "Yeah. I am." She paused before continuing. "You may have stolen my innocence, but he defiantly stole my heart." She returned her gaze to the roaring fire.

Dumbfounded, Urd asked, "You knew?"

"I figured it out after he died, when all my memories came flooding back to me. You gave me that lingerie, and taunted me….and you knew that I would eventually try it on." She said, her eyes still fixated on the dancing flames ahead of her.

"Oh." Urd replied to Skuld.

"But….I did love him with all my heart." Skuld added. "…and he loved me."

Skuld closed her tear filled eyes and began singing a soft, sweet melody, slowly getting louder with each breath she took. Soon both Belldandy and Urd joined her, raising her held hands together towards the sky, making a beautiful harmony of voices. A colorful display of "Northern Lights" danced high in the sky as they sung.

The camera backed away slowly, revealing the brilliant lights in the sky, and the roaring fire below them, all that was heard was the choir of goddesses singing…singing with Skuld leading them as she sung from her heartbroken heart.

THE END


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